Famous People Talking About River Phoenix

watching lots of people my brother and everybody and also just yeah just talking to them you know my brother and I always talked to each other and my sisters and everybody whenever some new script comes in the house or some new role it's always like on the family family's mind in the name we all sort of talk about it and go through it and then we can Phoenix rob reiner is casting it you know is directing the picture so it's casting and we're there and and I know that River Phoenix is in auditioning and I'm waiting and I've got that audition kind of jitters waiting to go in and and he's in there for a long time and finally he comes out and there are tears streaming down his face and he's still kind of heaving and sobbing from this emotional scene that he had done clearly nailed his audition and and we give each other a kind of actor ha yeah man thank you ever I was my first seem partner I did my first movie with River windows 14 and I remember my first day of shooting back then they really had to use a lot more light and I can't but I sound so low back then like but I here it is it's true they really did use a lot more light and I I couldn't stop crying my eyes were just watering and watering and remember I was so I really wanted to be an actor and I'm not gonna be able to do this but after a couple days I got it River was a serious young artist even at 14 he already knew more than I did he'd done it before and like we're doing this movie about kids building on Spaceship he's trying to talk about what's in his character's pockets and I you kind of knew right away that he was special do you in River Phoenix have been at the same time no I think he was before right alakazam ik yeah but did you have fun with it I also want to talk about this thing that you did out in LA with James Franco it's a very cool thing I'm a giant giant fan of James's of James's as well but a really giant fan of your foot River okay well he was the greatest teacher but I was a bad student because I'll tell you why because at the time I was uh I was really into I wanted to be River Phoenix or James Dean you know I was really into these guys I think you stole this look from my man River Phoenix in Explorer is that he was this just raw emotional open wound all the time he felt everything and he it's what made him such a wonderful wonderful actor you didn't keep in touch close heaven we drifted apart like right around I guess it was right around the time I was like 15 16 remember was 2 years older than me you know he he was clearly in a lot of pain and shock then when what happened to him or not probably not I wasn't shocked I I was sad yeah I mean it's I'm trying to thirst I'm trying to come up with the exact word it was it was you know it was it wasn't shocking it was like please don't let this be true there's a sad memory for me just because I really I liked River Phoenix so much and he passed at such an early age yeah and he was one of those wonderful young actors he couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 at the time and he was the one that would call you in your room every night and go do you mind running over this lines with me freely and he just he loved it so much and and you could just see that he was gonna be a really special actor and he was and it was just I just every time I think about the film I get very sad about just not having him around I got off stage and went out the door and the paramedics were working on this young man and I didn't I didn't know at the time that it was River River Phoenix had overdosed on drugs and died before reaching the hospital a stunned Johnny shut down the club for two weeks and allowed rivers grieving fans to set up a makeshift shrine outside Depp was saddened by the senseless death and enraged by the sensationalized media coverage that surrounded it the media wouldn't let not only River rest but they wouldn't let his family rest there's a song on the record called transcending which Anthony I wrote the lyrics for which is about River Phoenix and I was very very close to him rivers the kindest person I've ever known in my life I'd loved him so much by crying never Phoenix was a good friend of mine he was someone who I will always hold very close to my heart he was someone that understood a lot of things about me that no one else is ever understood about me he was a very insightful intelligent probably the kindest person I've ever met in my life and he also had a lot of problems you know and and because of that I don't know I can't really say exactly why he you know made some bad mistakes and he died you know and everybody makes mistakes you know it's just a shame when they happened to be fatal but that's actually not really what the song is about at all it's not really what I think about with her what I think about was just how fortunate I was to be his friend and how much his friendship meant to me and how many great times we had together rocker rock and roll rocking chair syndrome okay a rocking chair [Music] dump truck driving down a road loses brakes goes off the cliff manic woman tripping on the umbrella when I was 15 or 16 my brother river came home from work and he had a VHS copy of a movie called Raging Bull and he sat me down he made me watch it and the next day he woke me up and he made me watch it again and he said you're gonna start acting again this is what you're gonna do and he didn't ask me he just told me and I am indebted to him for that because um acting has given me such an incredible life I know that you you gave really beautiful touching speech in Toronto we were there and spoke about your brother River what do you how did his advice kind of impact your career in terms of how did it affect you in the decisions and everything you've made in your career first of all I had somebody write that you know I formed it out there somebody online yeah there's a great place called emotional personal speeches calm in my life I was very young and and as I became a teenager I I wasn't interested in the kind of roles that were available to teenagers at that time I made me double to me maybe they were available through other actors and they just weren't coming my way and so I just grown quite disinterested in it and I think he just gave me a lot of a lot of confidence and was just insistent that it was something that I was gonna do and it was hard to deny it because he seemed so certain and yeah I think it just gave me the confidence back when when I was growing out back in the 1980s 1990s River Phoenix was the person who was a household name and River Phoenix was really the first member of the family to jump into show business successful he got cast in a movie called Stand By Me you know he jumped out of the screen I think for a lot of people one of the things I learned in doing this is just how big an influence River Phoenix was on on Joaquin River Phoenix comes back after shooting some film and sits them down is like you're gonna be more successful actor than I am you're gonna be better known than I am you had said that you know for years you find it difficult to say your brother's name or to talk about it and I'd you know I really identify my mom and my sisters were the ones that really kept his memory alive and kind of the willingness to to talk about it rain has this beautiful lyric in our song in my mind I still fear light I keep it alive rain Phoenix just released an album called River and it's inspired by River Phoenix her brother obviously it's very personal many of the songs were inspired by River Phoenix and if you have seen a lot of the work that he did I still feel like it's his by far his greatest role and I'm wondering I mean what is it like to look at that now and I mean it what I mean he's kind of an enigma now because we lost him so young yeah you know um I mean I think he was already like just this amazing accurate before he did this but I think with this film he was you know he was able to have an effect on what the film was becoming and I think that I mean in the case of other times I've worked with actors as well it's very exciting because they're actually part of it and I think that might have like you know just kept him excited and every every day and when he came in and so he could you know do his best work I think it's because he was he was part of it part of the decision process he was sort of like um I mean as a person sort of like a Kennedy or something he would get in the middle of whatever the problem was if he saw some troubles he would he would get involved in the middle of it and try to negotiate or try and like you know help the situation I remember one night he said to me hands be going now to the real hustlers and I put sunglasses on so they wouldn't recognize me and I give you a hint who you pick out and we go to Jake's was very elegant restaurant bar in Portland and you interviewed the boy and I want to listen okay so I went there and then reverse it this one so we took him and then I said to the boy Adamo to have sex just I pay you just let's talk a little bit and then Weber was sitting in the corner with his sunglasses and he's beautiful here I turn and just listening actually I was interview the boy and of course I you know I had experience so it wasn't difficult be to ask what was the worst he ever had to do things like that and whoever needed it for his performance he needed it to know about this and that's I think that somebody goes that far but for me it was amazing and it's like he was so so much into this part to not make a mistake and he really wanted to know and everything I think it was I was really very sad when I heard on the news that he died so so young but he was one of the biggest talent I have in that age group I have to work with I got this script from Gus Van Sant her bold script very refreshing moving touching funny River was like let's do this and I was let's do this when I can't talk about my own Private Idaho without talking about River extraordinary person extraordinary original great heart great mind great spirit we're in Italy and we're shooting the scene where where Mike and I are out in Italy with the girl and I was on this farm it was a sheep farm there's like sheep you know we're hanging out in between takes and hang out with River we're just watching the Sheep play you know jumping around the hay and everything like that we're taking a walk back and to the house we come by and there's these two sheep hanging with their blood coming out the gentleman slit the sheep and then pulled its skin off but when it got to the head and had to give he has to give it this tug and he pulled it off and then river just kind of like he said he's like sweaters tight and so to get the chance to play with him to be a partner with him in this world that Gus van put together just really a great togetherness a great energy a great exploration a great people saying yes and you know at the core of this the center of this was was River

Channel: Joana

Views: 590,480

Rating: 4.9410648 out of 5

Keywords: riverphoenix, keanureeves, joaquinphoenix, cinema

Id: hKsVQAtAF_w

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020