Phoenix has no voice, wants to play singer
Carla Meyer, Ruthe Stein
Sunday, August 3, 2003 San Francisco Chronicle
Joaquin Phoenix tells us he's eager to have the proposed biopic about Johnny Cash's early years green-lit soon. "It would break my heart if it takes another 10 years to get made and I'm too old to star in it." We told him not to worry. Kevin Spacey is about to play Bobby Darin -- even though Spacey already is older than the entertainer was on his deathbed.
Never mind that Phoenix can't sing or play the guitar -- he reasons that Cash was never great at them either. "He has a very distinctive, powerful voice, but a lot of what he does is talk through a song," says Phoenix, who grew up listening to "J.C.," as his dad and uncle called him. "I can sound like him, so I figure I can talk my way through, too."
Phoenix does a lot of fast talking as a supply clerk with the soul of a con man in the new military drama "Buffalo Soldiers." As the Berlin Wall is about to fall, this guy operates a heroin factory in an abandoned hangar on a West German Army base and flourishes as a black marketer.
"Typically, within the first few moments in a film, something happens to endear us to the protagonist or to make him heroic," Phoenix said. "There were none of those things in this film. I didn't try to make him likable -- although we were aware he couldn't be so revolting that you wanted to walk out of the movie."
When a military adviser showed up to do an authenticity check, Phoenix tweaked him by growing his hair longer than regulation and wearing his shirt unbuttoned. "I wanted to see what reaction I would get from him as a way to prepare for the role," Phoenix said. Did this adviser understand his motive? "No, he just thought I was a dick."
Military brass may have a similar reaction to the movie's poster, depicting Phoenix in front of an American flag with dollar signs where the stars usually are. Instead of the Army's recruiting line "Be all you can be," the poster says "Steal all you can steal."
"Buffalo Soldiers's" unflattering portrayal of military life almost prevented its release. Made almost three years ago, the movie was delayed by the wave of patriotism after Sept. 11, 2001. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq further pushed the opening date back.
"A part of me thought it would just come out on video one day," Phoenix said. "But I have learned to divorce myself from movies after they're done. I really derive what I need out of the process of making the film. It's an amazing experience for me to play a character. I don't really care much about it after that." .