Recent Shows: Gladiator
Biography:
Born in Puerto Rico to Children of God missionaries John Bottom Amram
and Arlyn Dunitz Jochebed (a.k.a. Heart), Joaquin was the middle child
in a brood of five. As a youngster he took his cues from older siblings
'River Phoenix' and 'Rain Phoenix' , chan ...(read more)
Born in Puerto Rico to Children of God missionaries John Bottom Amram
and Arlyn Dunitz Jochebed (a.k.a. Heart), Joaquin was the middle child
in a brood of five. As a youngster he took his cues from older siblings
'River Phoenix' and 'Rain Phoenix' , changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier
monikers. When the children were encouraged to develop their creative
instincts, he followed their lead into acting. Younger sisters 'Liberty Phoenix'
and 'Summer Phoenix' rounded out the talented troupe. The family moved often,
traveling through Central and South America (and adopting the surname
"Phoenix" to celebrate their new beginnings), but by the time Joaquin
was 6 they had more or less settled in the Los Angeles area. Heart
found work as a secretary at NBC, and John turned his talents to
landscaping. They eventually found an agent who was willing to
represent all five children, and the younger generation dove into TV
work. Commercials for meat, milk, and junk food were off-limits (the
kids were all raised as strict vegans), but they managed to find plenty
of work pushing other, less sinister products. Joaquin's first real
acting gig was a guest appearance on River's sitcom "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1982) . He worked
with his brother again on the after school special Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia (1984) (TV) , then struck
out on his own in other made-for-TV productions. He made his big-screen
debut as the youngest crew member in the interstellar romp SpaceCamp (1986) ,
then won his first starring turn in the Cold War-era drama Russkies (1987) . In
the late '80s, the Phoenix clan decided to pull up stakes and relocate
again--this time to Florida. River's film career had enough momentum to
sustain the move, but Joaquin wasn't sure what lay in store for him in
the Sunshine State. As it happened, Universal Pictures had just opened
a new studio in the area and he was cast almost immediately as an
angst-ridden adolescent in Parenthood (1989) . His performance was very
well-received, but Joaquin decided to withdraw from acting for a while
- he was frustrated with the dearth of interesting roles for actors his
age, and he wanted to see more of the world. His parents were in the
process of separating, so he struck out for Mexico with his father.
Joaquin returned to the public eye three years later under tragic
circumstances. On October 31, 1993, he was at The Viper Room (an L.A.
nightclub partly owned by 'Johnny Depp' ) when his brother River collapsed
from a drug overdose and later died. Joaquin made the call to 911,
which was rebroadcast on radio and TV the world over. Months later, at
the insistence of friends and colleagues, Joaquin began reading through
scripts again, but he was reluctant to re-enter the acting life until
he found just the right part. He finally signed up to work with 'Gus Van Sant'
(who had directed River in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) ) to star as 'Nicole Kidman's
obsessive devotee in To Die for (1995) . The performance made Joaquin (who had
dropped Leaf and reverted to his birth name) a critics' darling in his
own right. His follow-up turn in Inventing the Abbotts (1997) scored more critical kudos,
and, perhaps more importantly, introduced him to future fiancée 'Liv Tyler'
(the pair dated for almost three years). He returned to the big screen
later that year with a supporting role in 'Oliver Stone (I)'s U Turn (1997) , then
played a locked-up drug scapegoat in Return to Paradise (1998) . He and Paradise co-star
'Vince Vaughn' re-teamed almost immediately for the small-town murder caper
Clay Pigeons (1998) , which Joaquin followed with a turn as a
porn store clerk in 8MM (1999) . The film that confirmed Phoenix
as a star was Gladiator (2000) . The Roman epic cast him as a selfish, paranoid
young emperor opposite 'Russell Crowe (I)'s swarthy hero. Determined to make his
character as real as possible, Phoenix gained weight and cultivated a
pasty complexion during the shoot. Later that year he appeared in two
indies, playing a dock worker in Yards, The (2000) (which he counts among his
favorite experiences--and one of the only films of his that he can sit
through) and the priest in charge of the Marquis de Sade's asylum in
Quills (2000) .
IMDb Editors
Quotes:
* "When I go out with the ladies, I don't force them to pronounce my
name. I tell them I like to go by the nickname of Kitten."
* "I had a Catholic girlfriend but she wouldn't, uh, share loving."
* 'After River's death, I felt like I was in an alter ...(read more)
* "When I go out with the ladies, I don't force them to pronounce my
name. I tell them I like to go by the nickname of Kitten."
* "I had a Catholic girlfriend but she wouldn't, uh, share loving."
* 'After River's death, I felt like I was in an altered state. It took me
over a year to get my life back.'
* I don't have the slightest desire to speak about my dead brother. It
gets on my nerves to always be compared with him. My brother was a
magnificent person and an outstanding actor.
* River and I would talk about being old, being in our 50s together, how
it'd probably take us that long to get to work together. There was
something gorgeous about us being old together. River will be missed
-period. I mean now, more than ever I wish I could talk to him. - on
living without older brother River.
* "My significant other right now is myself, which is what happens when
you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession."
* (On relationship with 'Liv Tyler' ) "What can I say ? We hit it off
immediately. She's a darling. I've said it over and over again. She's
just very real, right there, never like a movie star. She's so genuine,
and she doesn't take herself too seriously. It shows in the work she
does that her honesty stands out most."
* (On relationship with 'Liv Tyler' ) "I'm a great believer in people coming
into your life, and you into theirs, for a reason. And i know that when
Liv and I met, it was for a reason - I really needed her and she really
needed me. And at a certain point, I think we stopped evolving with
each other, stopped progressing, and made a very mature decision to
move on, even though there was still a great love there. There's no one
gossipy thing that I can share. I'm thankful that we had the time we
had."
* (On relationship with 'Liv Tyler' ) "I was in awe. Every once in a while you
find an actor that, with one word, can sum up eight different emotions.
She absolutely nailed that."
* "I'm not the indie kid, and I'm also not the 'John Grisham' novel hero, but I
am all of those things. I do whatever excites me at the time. I'll be
in some huge $80 million buddy cop movie, I don't care, and I'll also
do some wild independent movie. I refuse to have an agenda."
* "I don't know why I always get to play these guys who have few
redeeming features. But don't knock it. Villains are much more fun."
* "As I'm reading a script, I start to see the character. I always seem
to do something to my hair. A lot of stuff I do for a part, people
don't even notice, but I notice, and it makes the character whole for
me."
* "The reason I keep making movies is I hate the last thing I did. I'm
trying to rectify my wrongs."
* "I go into movies thinking, we're performing, but with interviews,
we're pretending to be completely real. I just can't get my head around
it. And the things we say in this hour could permanently shape our
personas. I mean, tell me that's not a little odd! And because I think
that's odd, people think I'm odd. And that's strange. Know what I'm
saying?"
* "I enjoy humour more than anything, I don't really sit around banging
my head and crying all the time."
* "I changed my name because no one in the States could pronounce
'Joaquin' and I used to get really embarrassed about it as a kid. All
the other kids in my family had gorgeous names and I got 'Joaquin', you
know what I mean? So I said 'This is not good. Even I can't say it'."
* "It's been a year since last time I tried to give up smoking. I went to
a hypnotist; we sat down and started talking. A couple of hours later,
I woke up; the hypnotist wasn't in the room, but his wife was. I was
like 'Oh my goodness, I fell asleep and didn't get to talk to the
doctor.' And she said 'Don't worry, you talked...' I freaked out, left
their place, immediately bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked,
terrified of what I'd said."
* "That kind of fame; I couldn't have it in my life. I love that we can
sit on the lawn in Central Park and I'm just one of the millions. I
don't want to lose that. I'm trying to figure out the perfect strategy.
And it's tough. I just want to be right in the middle."
* "I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was
wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or
two apart, and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned
everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger
sisters."
* "I never think that I'm good at anything I do. I can always do it
better, I know my weakness. I've never been perfect."
* "The less someone knows about me, the better, because my intention is
to play a variety of characters." - on maintaining a lower profile then
some of his other Hollywood peers.
* (On falling into acting): "I suck at painting and writing; I tried
both. For me, it's acting because I grew up with it. When we moved to
California, we all did commercials and TV shows. Riv was the first to
get a TV show and me and my sister Liberty guest-starred on another
show. It was kind of accidental."
* (On his childhood and his live on the land with his family): "I
remember us being poor, but I never felt embarrassed, or like I was
missing anything. I don't remember the hardship of trying to make it,
just how my parents always managed to get through."
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