14 DAY TRIAL // Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t want an Oscar, thankyouverymuch. While most actors’ biggest motivation is the thought that, one day, they will get their own Academy Award, Phoenix is happy just acting, without having anything to do with the awards circuit.
He’s already done it once, with “Walk the Line” and it’s clearly an experience he will not have repeated again, so the very idea that he might have to walk down that path again with “The Master” is infuriating to him.
“I'm just saying that I think it's bull[expletive]. I think it's total, utter bull[expletive], and I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it,” Phoenix tells Interview mag in a piece promoting Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie.
The very idea of comparing performances and art projects is insulting.
“It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other... It's the stupidest thing in the whole world,” he adds.
He’s not just looking to appear modest either: Phoenix really hates the fame game which every actor inevitably has to learn to play in order to make it in the industry.
If he could, he would do without it altogether.
“I never want to have that experience again. I don't know how to explain it — and it's not like I'm in this place where I think I'm just above it — but I just don't ever want to get comfortable with that part of things,” Phoenix says.
The bad news – for him – is that he’s already tipped for awards success with his performance in “The Master,” one of the strongest contenders so far at next year’s Academy Awards.
Then again, Phoenix has always been anything but conventional, which is just one of the gazillion reasons his fans love and respect him so much.