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Casey Affleck is Serious About That Joaquin Phoenix Rap Doc

by Ethan Anderton
May 12, 2010
Source: ABC News

There's been a lot of chatter concerning Joaquin Phoenix's departure from acting mostly stemming from his strange behavior following his retirement of sorts which saw him turning to music as a self-proclaimed "homeless rapper." Though we've heard his behavior was supposed to be the subject of a recently screened documentary currently titled I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix for Casey Affleck as his directorial debut. Though Phoenix's public antics scream mockumentary, Affleck spoke with ABC News seriously about the film which he says is a real doc chronicling an "interesting period in [Phoenix's] life."

Calling the film "interesting" would be the understatement of the year if a report from LA Times is accurate where they recount some of the film's finer points which include (spoilers ahead for those who may want to go into this crazy film blind) Joaquin Phoenix "snorting cocaine, ordering call girls, having oral sex with a publicist, treating his assistants abusively and rapping badly." In addition, the film really gets raunchy with, "more male frontal nudity than you'd find in some gay porn films and a stomach-turning sequence in which someone feuding with Phoenix defecates on the actor while he's asleep." Even the buyers aren't sure if this is a prank and are "more mystified by Phoenix's behavior than when they walked in." This all sounds so weird.

As ridiculous as it is, Affleck (who is Phoenix's brother-in-law) is deadpan serious about the reality of this so-called documentary. In talking with ABC News he reiterated how genuine the documentary is including the public spectacle Phoenix's behavior created and the infamous appearance on David Letterman's show:

"He said he didn't want to act anymore, he wanted to try doing music, and that, right there, says something's going to happen. I had no idea what exactly was going to happen and all that would unfold and every day I spent with him on this journey. It ended up being more and more fascinating, more and more things happened that were both in the public spectacle and a very private internal implosion that I got to witness. It made for this unbelievable, one-of-a-kind movie. I understand there were all these different reactions to what happened on the Letterman show; millions of people saw on YouTube and wrote about it and talked about it all over the place but most of them were wrong."

To be honest, this just sounds like someone knows how to really work the marketing machine and milk the media for all they're worth. While I'm wholly interested in this doc, I can't believe that someone like Affleck, who is close enough to Phoenix to let him shoot this kind of documentary, would actually let him destroy his career, and potentially his life, all for the glory of an eye-opening and interesting documentary. I'm sure this film has plenty of potential to find an audience in the end, but with all the raunchiness that LA Times mentions, I don't know how it will get past the MPAA without some serious censoring. I guess we'll see what happens with this documentary soon enough, so stay tuned. Do you guys believe Casey Affleck or not?

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Related categories: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

MickCanada

The article got it correct in assuming that Casey Afleck is playing along and feeding the media some confusion. This is gong to be a mocumentary and should be outrageous and when it is all said and over we should all have a laugh and Phoenix will be back as an actor, or laying low with his money but by no means a rapper
Matthew

I just want to know the truth. I for one cannot wait, regardless of the outcome.
Xerxex

I honeslty saw this coming, a mocumentary about his attemp at the rapping game. I'm in.
floppytall

So Casey never though "Hey, he's doing coke off a call girls ass maybe I should get his family to intervene"? Neh, I'll just exploit him by recording him doing it and make millions! Or maybe Casey just hates Johnny Cash. I'm game regardless.
Cody w

I get the feeling this is gonna constantly throw punches at the ridiculous modern rap industry and how they all act, I also hope his "retirement" from acting was a part of the joke so we can get his talent back into Hollywood.
Cody w

Also Alex, you say he destroyed his career yet at the same time, if everyone when all of this is said and done realize it was all part of it....itll boost his career through the roof. A lot of people like those commentators on youtube will be put to shame and have one big laugh that he might have orchestrated this. Or he was in the process of screwing himself and he had an epiphany to do this who knows.
http://www.firstshowing.net Ethan Anderton

@ #6, Cody w, Ethan Anderton here who actually wrote the above article. While there's definitely a chance this documentary/mockumentary will be so outrageous that it could boost his career, if the potential buyers for this film aren't even sure if it's a big ploy or not than the average audience member isn't going to be too certain either, and that's a big risk for not only Joaquin Phoenix, but Casey Affleck and the flick itself.
Dan W

Bull shit. Sounds like they had the idea for the movie before he had his "mental breakdown." I lost all respect for Joaquin. Sorry dude. You're rapping wasn't good or funny or witty or satirical, it was just embarrassing
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2408/blackbabyjesus.gif Crapola

It sounds like the whole thing was cooked up by a lot of cocaine snorting. Cocaine is for ballbags, it makes them think all their shitty little ideas are a work of genius. But Joaquin has loads more money than me so he can do whatever he likes, I hope he was having a laugh though because there are better rappers out there who have mental health problems.
DoomCanoe

either best publicity since Blair Witch or a very respected actor throwing his life away in front of the world. i hope its not real or its a sad sight.
Cody w

Yeah sorry for not paying attention to the author Ethan...my bad. The whole this actually successful thing is mostly wishful thinking on my part, its probably going to bomb an if it was just one big joke, it maybe the big joke that put Phoenix's career in the crapper.
Lincoln

Something's wrong with that picture..
Fat Baby

Pure genius. These two are playing Hollywood and most everyone else for everything they're worth. I love it!!!
blester01

This sounds like pure genius. I can't wait...
versee

I gave a s#!% long enough to say, "Who gives a shi%" Phoenix is a douchebag and so is Afflec. I've wasted enough time.
indyjack86

rapping didn't end his career.... We own the night ended his career!
Guy

"This is Joaquin Tap" is the name of this documentary. Lol
Jan Jarrell

What's truly pathetic is that we're actually giving scummy crap like this any attention at ALL!
gordy

someone on latimes site says its real
casting couch

I'll pay money to see someone defecate on Joaquin.