“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.”
-Joaquin Phoenix
River photographed by Brice Weber for Vogue US, 1990.
“Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on.”
My Own Private Idaho and Vincent Van Gogh paintings
- River Phoenix
"When it was Hearts turn, she related a vision she had: that River hadn't wanted to be born, preferring to stay with God in heaven. God had convinced him to go, and they haggled over how long, settling on twenty-three years." - Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room.
Première: Are you satisfied with what you've achieved at this point in your career? River : Honestly, I don't think this way. I never think of me as an actor. I see all of this as new experiences each time, like as many different lives. As many reincarnations. So when I watch my last movie, I'm unable to judge or to be critical. For me, it's past, and I don't feel any connection to it anymore, like if it was somebody else than me that I'm not responsible for. I immersed myself in another life that the character appropriated. He expressed himself through me, not the other way around. Première : It sounds like you've always taken care to separate your private life from your actor's work... River : Absolutely. Quite often, when actors have such a strong charisma in real life, eventually it has to affect the characters they play. For myself I'm not charismatic in that way. I'm not a "performer". Ideally I would stay mute as River. That's the reason why, for a long time, I've said the opposite of what I really thought. In interviews, I've also played characters that I wasn't. I've lied and often contradicted myself to dumbfound people. It's all over now, because I have nothing left to hide. Eventually, I'm quite an ordinary person. - By Jean-Paul Chaillet for Premiere, October 1993.
River photographed by Brice Weber for Vogue US, 1990.
"People connected with him really deeply. In this world of teen idols — where everyone feels polished — he was a beautiful boy and wonderful actor, but there was a degree of eccentricity and sense of being an outsider. People bonded with him. They thought he was trying to make the world a better place and not trying to book his next job." - Gavin Edwards, author of "Last Night at the Viper Room".
