The big debate over how real Joaquin Pheonix’s I’m Still Here has been blown wide open by its director. His retirement from acting and the documentary that Casey Affleck made following him for a year after his departure from the big screen was all a fabrication.
Millions of voices suddenly cried out in mock gasps and were suddenly silenced.
“It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career,” Affleck said of Phoenix’s two-year portrayal of himself on screen and off.
Magnolia Pictures released the film last Friday. “The reviews were so angry,” added Affleck. But then again, nothing was real, not even the opening shots in which Phoenix and his siblings swim in a water hole in Panama. Affleck said that was actually shot in Hawaii with actors, then “run back and forth on top of an old videocassette recording of ‘Paris, Texas’ to degrade the images.”
“I never intended to trick anybody,” Affleck explained. “The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind.”
Back in February last year when Joaquin made an appearance on David Letterman, he appeared as his “I’m Still Here” character without informing Letterman of his shift in personality adding credibility that the documentary was real and this was what became of Pheonix.
Casey Affleck flip flops a bit saying that he never intended to trick anybody, but then admits he didn’t come out and say it was a fake doc because he “wanted to create a space. You believe what’s happening is real.”.
So you wanted us to buy into it,but you didn’t mean to sell it?
Well at least he came clean in the end.
