No matter what he’s in, Joaquin Phoenix is a force of nature on screen. Whether tearing it up as the Joker, or giving soft quasi-dad vibes in C’mon C’mon, or entering the abyss in You Were Never Really Here, he always takes you to unexpected places – even if you’re the director of the movie. Ari Aster, the filmmaker who terrorised audiences with Hereditary and Midsommar, is back to bend everyone’s minds with intense cinematic odyssey (emphasis on the ‘odd’) Beau Is Afraid, in which Phoenix takes centre stage as Beau himself. As it turned out, Phoenix’s unique way of working changed how Aster – a meticulous planner – approached making his own film.
“I’ve had a hard time watching the films again – they feel kind of dead to me, because we just pulled off the plan,” Aster tells Empire of Hereditary and Midsommar. With Beau Is Afraid, Phoenix’s propensity for acting on instinct and channelling intuitive energies on the day was a chance to deviate from Aster’s initial plans and create something new. “Thanks to Joaquin, I think the film feels more alive to me than it might have because so much of what he does in it came to me as an emotional surprise – things I feel in certain scenes are things he’s making me feel, that go beyond what was on the page,” the writer-director explains. “That’s a really wonderful thing – when you can watch the film and it’s not just rote, because it’s something that I’ve been working on for years. There is a new life in it; there’s something else there.”
The result – as well as an emotional, surreal, near-indescribable trip of a movie – looks set to change how Aster works going forward. “He’s the best partner you could possibly have,” Aster enthuses, about Phoenix. “He’s the most committed. And equally tortured.” Maybe we all just need to embrace the chaos.
Read Empire’s full Beau Is Afraid feature, delving into Ari Aster’s unexpected new A24 opus, in the Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 issue – on sale Thursday 13 April. Become an Empire member now to access the issue in full on launch day, or pre-order a print copy here. Beau Is Afraid comes to UK cinemas from 19 May.