Joaquin Phoenix49 years old, at the Venice Film Festival to present Joker: Madness for Two he is one of the actors who best manages to bring to life dark charactersto which he lends his restless gaze and perhaps also a lot of his experience.
Third of five children, His life is a dark film that begins like a classic road movie. The mother Arlyn Sharon Dunetza divorcee from Manhattan, moved to California in 1968 where she met John Lee Bottom (this is the Joaquin’s real last name) while hitchhiking.
They live an unconventional life, wandering around the United States. The firstborn is born River and then little sister Rain. At one point they hug the cult of the “children of God” and move to a commune in Texas. Then when the father is appointed archbishop of the cult of Venezuela and the Caribbean, they move in Puerto Rico (where Joaquin was born) and then in Venezuela. Living in poverty in a shanty town, River and Rain scrape together money for food playing in the street. The cult of the children of God, however, is a sect that abuses children and where prostitution reigns.
When the children have already suffered traumatic experiences, the family decides to leave and change their surname: Phoenix, like the Arabian Phoenix that rises from its ashes. About the time in the commune, Joaquin never condemned his parents: «They were idealists. They were having a religious experience and wanted to share it with other people. They thought they had found a community that shared their ideals.”
After leaving the sect, they return to the United States stowaway on a merchant ship. On this ship headed to Miami, Joaquin turns 3 years old: “I remember the cake vividly, the first one I ever ate. I remember the toys. I had never received a new toy.”. The decision, shared by the whole family, also dates back to that period: go vegan: they see a fisherman take the net full of fish out of the sea and kill them. “I remember my mother’s face when we shouted at her: ‘Why didn’t you ever tell us what fish was?’. Her face was streaked with tears, she didn’t know what to say.”
Back in Southern California, they all began acting in commercials, on TV and then in film. Joaquin studies at home because he is quite lazy: «I’m sorry I didn’t give my best. I felt like I couldn’t stay still, I had other things to do, I thought». Acting took him away. Remembering one of his first experiences on set, at 10 years old: «I felt my body as if it were electrified. I felt like I had some kind of power, I was in a room full of adults and I could influence them.change the way they felt.”
Then in 1993 the great pain arrives, Brother River’s overdose deathwho at 23 is now a Hollywood star. When on Halloween night River feels ill, outside the club Viper Room di Los AngelesJoaquin, who is 19, and his sister Rain are present. He is the one who calls for help. Only in the following days does he realize how famous his brother was: «We were so far from the world of entertainment. We didn’t watch entertainment shows, we didn’t have entertainment magazines at home. River was a movie star and we didn’t know it“. Very touching is the memory of that grief that they cannot fully live: “At the moment when you are most vulnerable, you have helicopters flying over your head. There are people trying to sneak into your garden. For me it was as if this had hindered the mourning process.”.
