[Update: Watch a Clip of Casey Affleck talking about I'm Still Here]
In what could be considered the least surprising reveal of 2010, director Casey Affleck has confirmed that I’m Still Here, the documentary about Joaquin Phoenix’s drug-addled fall from grace/career change to a Matisyahu-like hip hop artist, is entirely fake.
Yes, even the charming “home footage” of Phoenix as a child playing with his family at a water hole in Panama.
Celebrities are capable of some pretty bizarre behavior, so it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that Phoenix had truly gone off the deep end (read our review of I’m Still Here). That said, had the footage been real, it would still be difficult to reconcile why Affleck, who is Phoenix’s brother-in-law, witnessing such a blatant downhill slide, would have ever opted to call a film crew instead of a real psychiatrist.
Affleck was surprisingly candid about the ruse when he spoke with The New York Times:
“I never intended to trick anybody. The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind.”
Update: Now you can watch Affleck talk about the film live in this clip from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show:
If that’s true, Affleck must not have had much control over the way the film was marketed, considering the official plot synopsis directly promises a “tumultuous year” in Phoenix’s life with “remarkable access”:
“The directorial debut of Oscar-nominated actor Casey Affleck, I’M STILL HERE is a striking portrayal of a tumultuous year in the life of internationally acclaimed actor Joaquin Phoenix. With remarkable access, I’M STILL HERE follows the Oscar-nominee as he announces his retirement from a successful film career in the fall of 2008 and sets off to reinvent himself as a hip hop musician. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, and always riveting, the film is a portrait of an artist at a crossroads. Defying expectations, it deftly explores notions of courage and creative reinvention, as well as the ramifications of a life spent in the public eye.”
Admittedly, Affleck captures a number of shocking moments on film but you can’t promise a tumultuous year and remarkable access if Phoenix could have pulled the plug at any moment; especially if you’re going to then come out after the fact and say, “Wow, we never meant for people to think it was a hoax.”
Affleck even admitted that David Letterman, who is featured in one of the weirdest moments of the film (as well as had to deal with Phoenix’s bizarre behavior in front of his own live studio audience), was not informed of Phoenix’s “act.”
You can check out the David Letterman footage below:
In defense of choosing to dupe everyone, Affleck channeled the power of artistic integrity:
“It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career… [We] wanted to create a space [where] you believe what’s happening is real.”
It’s hard to follow the young director’s train of thought, unless of course it’s entirely self-serving (considering the film just arrived in theaters). If you’re having trouble reconciling the ideas here, it’s simple: Basically, Phoenix and Affleck wanted to trick us – but also didn’t want us to be mad about it.
Ultimately there’s nothing wrong with a mockumentary, or even marketing it as a documentary; however, the biggest mystery is why Affleck thought praising Phoenix’s “terrific performance” is the best way to promote the film – over leaving people to wonder whether or not what they saw was real. If we all know it’s not real – what happens to that “space” the filmmakers so desperately attempted to create?
Follow us on Twitter @benkendrick and @screenrant and let us know what you think.
I’m Still Here is currently in theaters.
Source: The New York Times
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Idiots.
“If we all know it’s not real — what happens to that “space” the filmmakers so desperately attempted to create?”
EW needed to ask that question.
Yeah… I kind of wish they would have left it a secret until at least after most people saw it…
I’ll still watch it anyway, it’s no different than Borat really.
They thought that they were being so very clever. They wasted a year making a fake documentary on someone that no one cared about. Now how clever is that?
i couldnt care less. why is crap like this BS getting coverage lol
All I have to say about his act is…DUH!
Well the real point is that any self respecting actor and filmmaker would have asked themselves if they were… in fact… making a reality of something fake and that they … in deed… would now live with that reality for the rest of their lives as fakes… psssshawww!… ride a donkey to work and pick all that crap up as you go… later dudes … yar!
You knw what sucks is that Phoenix is going to rise right back into films with this indie moc/doc. ^
Oh it was all a joke,,!
Next thing he’s winning a Golden Globe for playing a retard who cures cancer, while falling in love with a blind girl who was once a prisoner in Iran,,,
Joaquin Phoenix is a terrific actor. Both he and Casey Affleck have had the luxury of indulging in a mockumentary.
Mockumentaries are meant to be fun and I’m sure they had a lot of fun making it.
Mockumentaries are nothing new and if I were Casey Affleck, I would not have praised Joaquin’s “terrific performance” for the sake of promoting the film. In trying to convey that space of reality with Joaquin, I would have let the perceived documentary run it’s course.
I really did wonder after seeing Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman. It was such an absurd notion that a fine young actor would suddenly decide to reinvent himself as a hip hop musician, dressed the way he was and acting in such a nonchalant manner.
It was almost too obvious and yet I’ve got to admit I was nearly duped and still left wondering.
I don’t understand some of the hate here. It really is a big ( what if? ) on behalf of the film makers. A clever and fascinating little experiment. No harm done.
Mag Eye, I think we all knew he was either on drugs or bsing the public.
I guess he was inspired by Sasha, but anyway, I thought the entire event was shallow and punked-ish.
With so much to do, why do I care about this guy? Beer! That’s prob why.
Yeah I’m with you on that 790.
I’ve always had a soft spot for mockumentaries. We saw quite a few in Screen Studies during my university days.
Man I knew it was fake from the get go, his brother-in-law, a director, just happens to be following him with cameras? It’s meant for a laugh, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it
Complete idiots.
Chewing gum and staring blankly at my monitor with severe bed head and rockin the ZZ Top look with beard and cheep sun glasses…
I FEEL SO FREAKIN’ SKILLED!!!!
Love ZZ Top,,,
Stage’s keep on rearanging,,,
You spelt Matisyahu wrong
Corrected. Must have been a typ-ho!
I think his performance, and that’s what it boils down to, is a take off of what Andy Kauffman did. Part of it is to elicit honest emotions from the spectators. Doesn’t matter what kind, he’s fishing for anything he can get you to feel. It’s one of the whole points of being an entertainer. What’s fun is how many people don’t get it, but finally catch on. The deeper mystery is how much control is Phoenix exercising? He’s still keeping some guessing so what can he stretch it into and how far can he take it?
“The deeper mystery is how much control is Phoenix exercising? He’s still keeping some guessing so what can he stretch it into and how far can he take it? … is a take off of what Andy Kauffman did”
These questions are at the heart of the most honorable part of the discussion that we can have about this Mockumentary. Thanks for bringing it up really… Kauffman actually taught me a lot about history because I trusted both his innocence and also his leaps of value into ‘cross cultural notions’ such as believing that he could jump in the ring with Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler who basically showed Andy the real truth about Mockumentaries and adhoc cultural exposition.
The minute you start to belittle or to marginalize a group of people or individuals directly is the minute that you open yourself up for a loss of esteem associated with loosing your own values in comparing them to someone else. Was I ever going to go see this film? Possibly but not if it is purely a study in pop psychology… Are Joaquin’s fans going to trust him to toss out their last $20 in the theatre the next time quite so quickly if he drags this on?
At best this will end up as selected clips on youtube with some celebrity status content. Casey had nothing to loose on this one and as history rolls out Joaquin may well understand the differences therein. I predict that it is likely we will see Joaquin getting behind the camera more and more to find what he is really looking for in this process of ‘revealing’ his true values and and film sensibilities.
You are spot on with regards to the concept of ‘excercising control’ and I compliment you and your specific use of language and vision here… it raised the bar of what I had been working to express relative to this work.
Makes you wonder why he would follow in Kauffman’s footsteps when that kind of career choice led to a broken neck, cancer, then death.
Not exactly a model business plan,,,
exercising control… i should try that with my spelling notions more often
srsly… its all about the ‘PoP’ in culture that leads people over the edge of looking for something new because they can find nothing within their own matrix of values… oops -2 … i used the word ‘matrix’… taking the red pill now…. catch you folks on the flip side… gone to make some film
sorry if I’m in the minority here but this was absolutely brilliant. They were never really tricking anyone, at least from my point of view. They got David Letterman involved and that’s when I knew this was a scam. I honestly applaud and respect their level of dedication to this. A mockumentary is a mockumentary and that’s how this needs to be taken. From what I’ve heard though, even on this site, is that the movie itself is an excellent film on a man’s downfall and struggle to get it all back together. Maybe that’s what their point was to do all along and Affleck doesn’t know how to phrase it. If they had just said hey, let’s make a movie about a famous actor’s life completely falling apart then we would have all been like who cares this has been done. BUT what they decided to do was take this into the real world and completely immerse themselves in this movie and this role. I respect that. Joaquin Phoenix lived like a hobo for like 2 years and to be honest they never said this was real so I think that’s most people’s problem. I’m going to defend this for a long time to come. I’m going to go so far to say that the academy should at least consider this in it’s documentary category and maybe even consider Joaquin Phoenix for best actor. yes, I just said that. He became this guy for almost 2 years.
I agree
I agree. People get way too hung up in the analysis of this flick. I too will defend this flick too forever.
It was a funny premise, and one that he had to “live” to pull off. Going on Letterman like that? I remember people talking about that, believing it, and being shocked that Phoenix was so wasted. But it was all a movie, but he put himself out there and really looks/looked like a total ass in that movie.
So eff off all those people who bash him. When was the last time you made yourself look like an ass for the enjoyment of millions?
I’m sorry but the ‘real world’ that they took it into was some upper middle class fantasy which cannot even be maintained by the industries perpetuating it. Joachin chosing to become a heavy weight middle class ‘drop out’ from his normal scene is just him slumming and marginalizing the real struggle of those folks who are trying to reach their peak in an ‘unsustainable fantasy world’ which is perpetuated by the glorification of this sort of mockery.
The Real World is actually far more barren and brutal than any hobo slumming that Joaquin was actually processing in his ‘documentary’ process of his tell all slide from responsibility to an industry who made him. Harsh words? Nah… Academy Award ??? Nope… Factual document? Hardly… Mockumentary… sure why not but he certainly wasn’t rollin deep in Memphis or Compton now was he? Nigga Please….
So you respect Joaquin Phoenix because he lived like a hobo for 2 years. Why? He wasn’t a hobo. Persumably he still has all his money and possessions, I mean I didn’t hear he gave them away to charity. He doesn’t have the moral or psychological mindset of a hobo, if he did than this would be a real documentary instead of what Affleck now calls entirely fake. Even with that, his act was not particularly funny, whimsical, or profound. If he ever makes anymore good movies I’ll watch him, otherwise he can keep his performance art.
You miss the point. It’s not about it being ‘so cool he lived as a hobo’.
It was about doing something different than the standard Hollywood flick where someone else writes it and you do the lines.
Did you watch the movie before reading reviews and knowing? I could see that making a big difference. If you read the reviews and watch it, it’s probably not that great.
But I don’t read reviews – I watch a movie and see where it takes me, which is really what the maker of the movie is hoping for. To know the end before even watching the beginning is completing missing out on the journey of watching a movie.
So it’s not about Joaquin at all. It was just a different kind of movie.
i wonder why this is a more then a “well whatever ” news story.why it is worth a discussion.
This will definitely alter my perception when I finally see it (I have to wait for Video on Demand to pick it up), but I’m still excited. Sounds like some Kaufman-like commitment going on, except the people involved couldn’t keep the ruse going.
Alot of people bashing this flick – but did you watch it unbiased?
Phoenix makes himself look like a complete ass, and sells it really well. He looks like crap through that whole movie. He essentially put himself down for entertainment.
If you watch it unbiased like I did (i don’t care for Phoenix one way or the other), you kinda wonder if it’s real or not.
I think they were just trying to make a film that looks as real as it possibly could be, while trying not to go overboard.
Good job to Phoenix for putting himself on the line, looking like total crap, and pulling it off.
For the haters, go hate something else you effing losers. It’s just a movie. Don’t watch if you don’t like it. Don’t comment if you’re an idiot.
Hella funny! These celebs are always pulling loony crap like this. Great preformance.
initial thought was it’s fake, then fuzzy. so a feeling of uncertainty materialized. but a nice prank overall, unless it’s real. who knows?