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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / How Were Your Days With the Unabomber?

How Were Your Days With the Unabomber?

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I thought Joaquin Phoenix had lost his mind until I saw this David Letterman clip (via TNC), and now I am firmly convinced this is an elaborate hoax:

Dave’s end to the interview was classic- “Joaquin, I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight. I guess we owe an apology to Brooke Shields Farrah Fawcett. ”

Should be interesting to see where this goes.

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  2. 2.

    gopher2b

    I was watching it live and couldn’t turn away. I put it at 50/50 hoax/ he was stoned out of his mind. After he got up to leave, he lifted his shades but only Letterman could see his eyes. So, Letterman knows one way or the other.

  3. 3.

    jenniebee

    If it wasn’t an act, the Two Lovers distributors would have canceled the interview, and Letterman wouldn’t have let it go on as long as he did.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    Dave’s end to the interview was classic- “Joaquin, I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight. I guess we owe an apology to Brooke Shields. ”

    1) what’s this blockquote mean?
    2) what’s the vid showing? I can see the pic, but Supreme Firewall prevents it from playing. What happened?

  7. 7.

    Bootlegger

    He actually seemed to be acting similar to his role in the clip they showed. Why? Dunno.

    But "stoned" came to mind, though more like heroin than weed, he also appeared like people with onset schizophrenia.

  9. 9.

    norbizness

    Maybe Joaquin can distract him while Harvey Pekar hits him with a chair and the ghost of Bill Hicks pantses Paul Schaefer.

  10. 10.

    Buck B.

    Hilarious. I was laughing my ass off the whole time.

    I totally agree with you John, really just a great comic performance from both guys.

  12. 12.

    Keith

    He apologized to Farah Fawcett, not Brooke Shields. Fawcett’s famous for having a (very) stoned appearance on Letterman years ago.

  13. 13.

    Ed Drone

    But "stoned" came to mind, though more like heroin than weed, he also appeared like people with onset schizophrenia.

    I just had a think — if someone in the public eye, an actor or entertainer, say, started to actually go nuts, but his ‘persona’ was ‘a wild and crazy guy,’ how could we tell if it was real (his/her going nuts)? Paris Hilton or one or another of those ditsy types, for instance, could well be certifiable, or just anti-socially ‘carefree’ with their use of mind-altering substances. And we might never know.

    All this also makes me wonder: if Robin Williams went off the deep end, would we know because he wasn’t as funny anymore? But what happens if he’s funnier? Do we prevent him from being treated because we need the laughs?

    There’s a science-fiction story somewhere in all of this.

    Ed

  16. 16.

    Bootlegger

    @Ed Drone: Not so sci-fi. Robin Williams readily admits that if he were not alredy labeled a "comedian" that his antics, which are his natural state, would likely be leabled "mental illness". In the same interview I heard this he was saying that his kids get spooked by it sometimes and beg him to stop acting that way.
    There is a entire literture in the sociology of mental illness that addresses the social construction of mental illness and one of the common obsrevations is that one man’s mental illness is another man’s (or woman’s) quirk. Usually, higher status people are allowed far more deviation from the norm when it comes to their behavior (see W).

  17. 17.

    AdamK

    Robin Williams hasn’t been funny for decades.

    Not because he’s crazy, just because he used up all his tics.

  20. 20.

    Louise

    Didn’t Garth Brooks already try this alternate-persona thing?

    I lean towards hoax, simply because it’s hard to believe someone could have this little self-awareness — unless he’s ill, in which case (as others have pointed out), his peeps wouldn’t be letting him do these interviews.

    Oh, and there just isn’t anyone better than Dave in this kind of situation. I was already laughing, but when he said, "I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight," I fell over. Dave, now and forever.

  21. 21.

    mak

    While I hope it was an homage to the legendary Dave interview with Crispin Glover, I fear it was more clinical than that. Boy’s got a family history of drug-related bad outcomes, after all.

  23. 23.

    passerby

    Great actor. He always appears spacey in interviews and he’s usually blunt with his opinions. The whole hip hop persona I think is part of his plan to reinvent himself. I think it’s a put-on, a role. He’s having fun on his terms.

    He sat there being spacey and wordless but as soon as the interview ended, he popped out of his seat, whipped off the sunglasses and shook hands again as though some director had yelled "cut!"

    The curiosity factor on this guy is through the roof.

  24. 24.

    ed

    No hoax. Batshit loony. He was never that good of an actor.

    Yes hoax. Not batshit loony. He was never that good of an actor.

    He’s kidding, he cracked up a little about halfway through.

    Uhxactly.

  25. 25.

    Ninerdave

    He’s kidding, he cracked up a little about halfway through.

    That and removing his shades to look Dave in the eye and shake his hand again.

    F’n hysterical though.

  26. 26.

    Doctor Cleveland

    Well, since Dave’s staffers prep the guests before they come out (so Letterman knows how to set up their "comical anecdotes") at the very least we know that Letterman knew what he was in for. That makes me lean towards hoax.

  30. 30.

    JoyceH

    Okay, so I watched the clip, and come away convinced that he’s playing a part. Not sure what the part is, or why, but that was acting. Letterman knew it, too.

  31. 31.

    carpeicthus

    I’m betting hoax, if only because Dave is famous at this point for dealing with awkward interviews, and they would know how much crazy publicity it would get compared to a "normal" interview. You just need to have a Crispin Glover-style persona, who’s willing to, among other things, fake his own death.

  35. 35.

    sgwhiteinfla

    He may or may not be kidding but he didn’t do this just for Letterman. He has been "rapping" for the past few weeks as this TYT clip shows.

    youtube.com/watch?v=Xay6T9euKkc

    Now he might actually be faking but as someone said on another blog we might want to remember that his brother River who was a much bigger star and had a lot more potential killed himself with an OD. So maybe the guy really does have mental problems. Im just sayin.

  36. 36.

    Joshua Norton

    Robin Williams hasn’t been funny for decades.

    True. Everything he does devolves into a sort of bipolar upswing with a generic latino accent.

  37. 37.

    Stuck

    I think it was pure acting, and quite good. A couple of times a knowing smile gave it away. It’s the kind of Avant Garde that results when hippies raise children and they go off to Hollywood to make their fortune.

  40. 40.

    Michael D.

    Off topic: “If evolution is true, then why are there still monkeys?”

    That was an ACTUAL QUESTION on a CNN Headline News call-in show. To which the host replied: “That’s a good question.”

    I thought I was watching FOXNews. I almost cried. It’s ok for the host on a major network to not take a position on, say, the stimulus package. But telling someone that such a fucking stupid comment is “a good question” is fucking moronic. Also:

    A Gallup poll released this week shows that 39 percent of Americans say they “believe in the theory of evolution,” while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36 percent don’t have an opinion either way.

    It’s no wonder the United States is nearly broke. We spend so much fucking money and time debating shit like this with imbecilic moronswith either 5th grade educations or who were raised by whackjobs.

  41. 41.

    roseyv

    Well, I had heard something about this recently, although I can’t recall exactly where. Maybe on The Soup? Where, supposably, Phoenix is "deliberately" staging a meltdown so that his friend can film it for some kind of pseudo-documentary? Or is that just a dream I had?

    I mean, it might just as likely be that that’s the cover story his publicist came up with, but it at the same time it sounds weirdly plausible.

  43. 43.

    Ed in NJ

    It’s been reported for weeks that this may be an elaborate hoax that is part of a documentary being filmed by his brother-in-law, Casey Affleck.

  48. 48.

    BDeevDad

    Speaking of getting baked, I think I like Obama’s choice for drug czar, not that I like there being the position in the first place.

    Kerlikowske’s possible role in shaping drug policy for the Obama administration was applauded Tuesday by local medical-marijuana advocates.

  50. 50.

    passerby

    @sgwhiteinfla:

    I saw that TYT clip and it made me think that JP (and other celebs) crave attention and/or fear oblivion. So I’m thinking that he "spending" some of his celebrity capitol by having some fun, and doing anything he wants to do. He’s an accomplished actor with lots of money so he’s got nothing to lose as he explores new horizons. I like this guy.

    p.s. He does not seem to fear absurdity e.g. award winning performer to "hip-hop" artist–absurd self amusement.

  54. 54.

    YellowJournalism

    It’s been reported for weeks that this may be an elaborate hoax that is part of a documentary being filmed by his brother-in-law, Casey Affleck.

    That will be the best documentary ever made.

  57. 57.

    Ed Drone

    The sci-fi angle was what if there was a society that so desperately needed comic relief that they deliberately ‘grew’ their own comics by failing to medicate or treat certain kinds of mental illness? You can see elements of that in our treatment of certain celebreties (Lohan, Hilton) and entertainers (Williams, Kaufman, Jonathan Winters), but I was mentally extending that tendency to postulate a whole world like this.

    As for the anti-Darwin "why are there still monkeys?" question, that’s easy. Monkeys exist because evolution fills niches in the environment. If man still lived in the trees, monkeys wouldn’t exist, because man would have crowded them out. But since man has filled a niche away from the trees, monkeys haven’t been crowded out. But notice that it is taking a lot of effort to protect the great apes, since man IS crowding them out (and killing them for sport and profit). So eventually, man may succeed in killing off monkeys — the need to do it (competition in their niche) just hasn’t been strong enough.

    Ed

  58. 58.

    liberal

    @Bootlegger:

    There is a entire literture in the sociology of mental illness that addresses the social construction of mental illness and one of the common obsrevations is that one man’s mental illness is another man’s (or woman’s) quirk.

    There’s a really interesting part of Sapolski’s (generally awesome) A Primate’s Memoir, in which he is talking with woman who belongs to a local tribe (this is Africa, Kenya I think) about another woman in that tribe who went nuts.

    At some point she says they knew she was nuts because she heard voices when no voices were there.

    Sapolsky counters that the tribe has rituals wherein participants "hear voices," etc.

    The woman replied, "Yes, but she hears voices at the wrong times."

    He then wrote, "That’s all I needed to know about comparative psychology."

  59. 59.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    I guess the neuron triggering the “WOMEN I WANTED TO BED WHEN I WAS 14” misfired while I was typing it.

    That would be a short list for me: All of them.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    I’m going to remember this technique of magically turning 11 minutes into 22 for later in life, when it will prove very valuable.

    Joaquin doesn’t quite have the Jim Morrison thing perfected here–doesn’t have the chops. Given his completely whacked upbringing and his brother’s tragic demise before him, it’s no stretch to think there’s more of a little of the real thing on display in the clip. Maybe it started as a schtick, but there’s a possibility the schtick may stick. (FWIW I though he fit a little too easily into his Gladiator character’s skin.)

  62. 62.

    JGabriel

    BDeevDad:

    Even the Vatican is dissing ID

    That shouldn’t be a big surprise. The Catholic church has regarded "Genesis" as a metaphor for the creation of man’s soul (rather than physical being) for a quite a while. Darwin, evolution, natural selection are not a problem.

    But they couldn’t admit they were wrong about Galileo until the 1990’s. Go figure.

    .

  63. 63.

    cmorenc

    I really can’t stand her [Paltrow’s] acting. How did she become a big star?
    Connections:
    Mommy: Blythe Danner
    Daddy: Bruce Paltrow

    Her acting may be questionable, but I really like her puppies, which made a cameo appearance in Shakespeare In Love

  64. 64.

    passerby

    @trollhattan:

    (FWIW I though he fit a little too easily into his Gladiator character’s skin.)

    I agree and thought the same thing of one of his early roles as a mumble-mouthed stoner in "To Die For". He did a good job with the role but I remember thinking that he was just playing himself there.

  65. 65.

    MazeDancer

    There is a documentary in the works. About Phoenix’s switch to being a rapper. With, no joke, Sean Combs producing. Whether all of that actually turns out to be a spoof in the end is unknown. But the Hollywood Reporter had a little post in January:

    rel="external">hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i989acc6090241ec6ca07cef669efc87a

    (Not entirely sure that link is linking. Sorry if you have to cut and paste.) Morning Joe speculated it was a send-up and/or part of the documentary

  66. 66.

    Andre

    I dunno, I honestly think he just woke up one day and said "Fuck it, why am I still doing this? I got what I need, I’m gonna go do something else, even if it’s stupid and meaningless."

    I mean, I think people are so shocked by this because they feel like actors aren’t supposed to retire, that as long as they’re alive, they’re actors and that’s that. But what if someone really does feel over it? Actors get bored like everyone.

    The interview has a performance feel to it, but I don’t know that that means the intentions behind it are untrue. Seems like he realised he’s still looked at as a performing seal, no matter what he wants, and decided to ham it up.

  67. 67.

    Anton Sirius

    @DougJ:

    She had Harvey Weinstein wrapped around her little finger. Presumably still does, but that isn’t worth quite as much as it used to be.

  68. 68.

    Anton Sirius

    Much as I’d like to back the hoax/act theory, and there may be some form of spoof doc thing in the works, Joaquin has *always* been like that to some extent.

  69. 69.

    timb

    @Ed Drone:

    All this also makes me wonder: if Robin Williams went off the deep end, would we know because he wasn’t as funny anymore? But what happens if he’s funnier? Do we prevent him from being treated because we need the laughs?

    When was Robin Williams funny? Did I miss something….

  70. 70.

    scarshapedstar

    He was acting, but Farrah sure as hell wasn’t.

    Also, Robin Williams’s standup is funny like a cat chasing laser pointers around an electrified china shop is funny. Take it or leave it.

  73. 73.

    LiberalTarian

    I dunno. He looks like someone on heavy-duty anti-psychotic meds to me. It takes them a long time get jokes, and they can’t react quickly or even fully.

    I *hope* it is a hoax, an act, a stunt; if it isn’t it is about as tragic as anything I’ve seen on TV for a long time.

  75. 75.

    scruncher

    I say hoax, planned comedy bit, whatever you want to call it. Letterman seemed totally in on it. Otherwise, he woulda started getting irritated as he hates lazy guests.

    Forget the movie. It’s the rap career he’s looking to promote. Who wouldn’t tune in to his first televised rap performance now? Before, not so much.

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