Joaquin Phoenix has two new films, both about the benefits and responsibility of family: the just-opened crime drama “We Own the Night” and the intense personal thriller “Reservation Road,” opening soon.
Q: “We Own the Night” is the second time you’ve been in a James Gray-directed crime drama with Mark Wahlberg. In 2000’s “The Yards,” you were an impulsive kid; in this one, you’re a man taking responsibility for your decisions. What happened?
A: I grew up? It has been a few years. But actually, those have been very fruitful years for me. The more work I’ve done, the more I’ve learned. I think my first truly adult role was in “Ladder 49.” What’s funny, though, is that we started talking about making this one as soon as we finished “The Yards,” so he must have thought I could have handled it.
Q: “Night” is set in the ’80s, but it still comes from the same place as his other films, the Russian subculture of crime. What’s the fascination?
A: It’s like one big movie to me, a look at this wave of immigration that had little interest in assimilating, and even if they wanted to, it was closed to them. My character in this one is an outsider who is more or less adopted by them, and trusts them more than he trusts his real family, who are
Polish-American cops.
Q: One of them is Robert Duvall, who plays your police captain father. When I spoke to him not long ago, he singled you out as the “real deal,” which as you probably know from working with him is about as high praise as he can muster. Did you spend time just watching him work on this movie?
A: You’d be crazy not to. He says more cocking an eyebrow than most actors say in a whole movie. If he said that about me, I’m humbled.
Q: Though you did some comedy when you started, since then it’s all been pretty heavy. Is that by choice?
A: At first, I think. You never want people to think you’re a lightweight, I guess, so you go for meaty stuff, even if you’re not quite ready for it yet. The problem now is that everybody thinks I’m this haunted, dark guy, and I’m not, you know. I’m really just dull and normal.
Q: In “Reservation Road,” you’re a pretty normal guy until tragedy intervenes. Was it hard to make that transformation?
A: No, because I understood that guy. He has a good life, a good marriage, a good family, then, just like that, it’s snapped away. He’s really comfortable with himself and then – wham! He has to go off and make some dark movie. (Laughs.)
