Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklynâs
But itâs 1988, and
We Own the Night, an emotional crime thriller about a man who has chosen to hide his past only to discover that he has to confront an inevitable future, takes its title from the motto of the 1980s-era
So to help promote the film, Sony recently held a press day and all the stars did roundtable type interviews.
During our 20 minutes with Joaquin, we discussed his relationship with James Gray, working with Mark Wahlberg, Eva and Robert Duval, his other movies coming up and a lot more. As a big fan of Joaquin it was really cool to hear him speak in person.
As always you can either read the transcript below or download the MP3 of the interview by clicking here. You can also watch some movie clips from the movie here.
âWe Own the Nightâ opens tomorrow at theaters everywhere.
Question: Mark said that your only role in producing this movie was to ask why a particular scene of yours hadnât been cut from it.
Joaquin: My role as producer is really as an actor that didnât get paid as much as he was supposed to therefore they offered him a production credit. He agreed to it because heâs greedy [laughter] and thatâs essentially the story for me to be perfectly honest.
Q: Donât you get anything on the backend? Donât you get points?
Joaquin: Letâs talk about your back end. Lets talk about some of your stuff and get into that. [laughter]
But they didnât give you any money?
Joaquin: I know, pobrecito. I know. Itâs very, very tough out there. No, itâs not that I wasnât paid well, itâs just I wasnât paid the crazy exorbitant amount that Iâd been paid before.
I think James is the only director youâve worked with more than once.
Joaquin: Thatâs true.
And he obviously likes working with you for whatever reason.
Joaquin: I think itâs desperation, honestly. I think everyone else was unavailable.
What is it about this guy that you trust more than you have other filmmakers?
Joaquin: Itâs not who I trust more. Iâve talked with virtually every single director Iâve worked with about working together again and it rarely comes up for a number of reasons. But, I do like working with James a lot. Itâs difficult for me to be able to pinpoint exactly what it is. But, I think itâs that he loves human psychology. He loves actors. He loves talking about acting. We just exchange texts, e-mails and phone conversations. Weâre getting ready to do something in November. I always forget what the process is like in a movie and now weâre getting ready for something. Heâs just available to talk about anything and I really enjoy that because, to me, thatâs what the prep period is about. You just have a lot of yes and no questions in some ways. Iâve never found a director that wasnât really available for the actor but James just has an interesting way of looking at things and what heâs trying to conjure. Nothing is really just what it seems. I was trying to think of an example and I canât think of one but itâs almost like if there was a funeral scene, letâs say you were talking about it trying to figure out what everybody might say, âwell, you know how everyone comes together from thousands of miles apart and they all meet together and everyoneâs there to take care of each other?â, and you go âoh, yes. Do you feel that?â He goes, âwell no. That guyâs your uncle and he was trying to screw over that person. Your mom, she screwed that guyâ and he suddenly introduces all these less than favorable qualities that most humans have and you find those dynamics in families. And, I always find that interesting. Heâs delves beyond the surface and what is kind of the obvious dynamics between people and introduces things that you might not have thought of. Or, that you get trained, in a sense, by
What do you like about working with Mark?
Joaquin: Heâs gorgeous to look at. No, Mark is really hard-working. It means a lot to me. I think itâs something that I value in other people but I think the best thing about Mark is thereâs such truth and authenticity in his performances. Iâm always surprised. I hate revealing the truth but I remember doing this scene with him and James had just come up with brand new dialogue for him literally, as weâre walking to set, heâs come up with this new dialogue and I had some as well so, of course, Iâm sweating and panicking and figuring out how am I gonna say this? Mark looks really comfortable. Then we go to set and he absolutely, fuckinâ nailed the scene. It was unbelievable to me that somebody could do that because it took me a while to get anywhere. It was just good enough where I got to and he just kind of did it so thereâs a real truth, something totally unpretentious about him. It just feels like heâs there.
Were you always going to be Bobby and Mark be Joe from the outset? Was there ever a possibility that you would play Joe?
Joaquin: Well, it depended on Brad Pittâs availability, then Leoâs availability. I remember talking about playing Joseph with James when we first talked about it. First it was Joseph, then he started talking about Bobby but it was like on âThe Yardsâ, me and Mark switched back and forth. I donât know. At some point, it became clear like the last three months that I was gonna play Bobby.
This and your character in â
Joaquin: Yeah. I think Iâd be bored⦠first of all drama is conflict. Itâs just that simple. You want conflict in the character. If not, Iâm bored to fuckinâ death. I donât know a single person in life that doesnât have conflict. Itâs a movie so theyâre like extreme versions of these things, these things that we donât necessarily experience in life and itâs a way to experience and study it. I think, honestly, it probably just comes down to boredom, being bored or not. Because Iâve been on films where they were just like, quote, unquote, regular guys and it was really fuckinâ tedious and boring to me. I donât enjoy acting enough to not want to experience something that really effects things. Like if you were a surfer, would you want to surf where there were like two foot waves or would you want to surf on ten foot waves? To me, the more dramatic stories or more exciting for me to play or else Iâd just⦠thereâs too much other stuff that goes into it; the make-up, the hair and the wardrobe and taking pictures and doing press and all this shit that I donât really enjoy. Itâs not worth it to be without having an experience that would be intense.
With this and â
Joaquin: Itâs an awkward position to be in. Itâs like Iâve read some stuff about bands and songs or a particular album and you find out that song is written about his aunt or something and youâre like âhell, Iâve been loving this girl because of this song. What are you doing to me? Itâs about your fuckinâ aunt?â [laughter] I always feel like oftentimes, actors just lie in the press and say theyâre really affected by things or else I think it ruins the experience should anybody happen to read this. I think it can potentially ruin the experience. I wouldnât really want to listen to that thinking that the guy was thinking about what was for lunch. But, to be honest, Iâve done a lot of scenes where Iâm thinking like âwhat the fuck is for lunch? I canât wait to get out of hereâ. People talk about being effected by stuff and having dreams and shit, if you go home and I happen to be in one of your dreams tonight, I donât think itâs because you were like sooo effected by this, putting your heart and soul into these interviews. I think itâs just we were around each other so I popped into your dreams.
Did you have only one take of that Eva Mendes scene?
Joaquin: I asked for seventy! But we did only get one take.
But was it as good for Eva?
Joaquin: She said âweâre done. Thatâs itâ. Halfway through the take, she was like, âGod weâre done. I think you got itâ.
But how was it to work with Eva? Did you get to practice your Spanish on her?
Joaquin: I didnât practice my Spanish with her. It was great working with Eva. They were like âwe cast Eva Mendesâ. I was like âgreatâ. Then I met her and we were walking to the hotel and there were all these cameras and I was like âoh, sorry. I know, it drives me crazyâ. So, she walked one way and I went the other way and they followed her! âWho is this womanâ. But with Eva I was surprised. James and I would get together every weekend throughout filming and go over the following weekâs work and figure it out and all throughout rehearsals every day. Eva was there every, single day. We had to tell her âactually, weâre not talking about anything you should know about. Itâs just about Bobby. You donât need to knowâ and sheâd be like âoh, okayâ. But itâs kind of rare to find people⦠you can really get away with just kind of showing up as an actor. Itâs not like a bad thing. But, you donât really have to come in on weekends. The fact that she wanted to and was willing to do that, I thought was really good. I thought she was really amazing. It was a really difficult role to do and sheâs amazing. Again, thereâs a scene where weâre talking in a car being driven and sheâs really amazing. When you think about the fact that weâre sitting on a street with lights around and thereâs dudes rocking the bumper from outside and then, just beyond the tape, are dudes taking pictures of Eva trying to get through, and sheâs doing the scenes and youâre like âfuckâ. Because, donât you watch movies sometimes, and you have that thing of âI could fuckinâ do thatâ. Everyone has that thing like itâs not so difficult and, in a lot of ways, itâs not but those situations; you have an emotional scene and itâs utterly ridiculous. Thereâs literally four dudes running around your car pumping it like that and youâre supposed to pretend people are after you.
Is this next character you are doing with James in this new romantic film as dark?
Joaquin: Yeah. I wouldnât know.
How would you define that character?
Joaquin: I wouldnât.
Whatâs the name of the character you play?
Joaquin: Donât even know.
First of all, you appear in my dreams every night [laughter].
Joaquin: Room 674.
Can you talk a little bit about working with Duvall?
Joaquin: Yes, of course. Fuck, man. Who doesnât love Duvall? Heâs an unbelievable actor. I remember him making an impression on me when I was very young. I remember seeing âApocalypse Nowâ and being like âwho is this dude?â Itâs pretty amazing. Then, once getting to know him, I value his work even more in some ways, especially when you look at âThe Godfatherâ and stuff. Heâs so dissimilar to that character. Honestly, it was a little intimidating at times because heâs so fuckinâ good. There was never a false moment. Or, if he felt like there was a false moment, he didnât show it. I guess I feel like sometimes I struggle with things to give them some weight or some truth and Duvall⦠theyâre like ârolling, speedâ and heâll lean over and tell you a joke or his biggest thing is to talk about food for some reason. He literally is like âhave you been to..â. Iâd say ânoâ. âGreat steakâ. âIâm a vegetarianâ. Heâs amazing. He was immediately that character. We kind of fell into that dynamic almost immediately. We had one night where we kind of just started improving and he did the most amazing thing. He did this one gesture in a church. Weâre having a conversation early on in the film and I get up to leave and I get up to step over the pew and he just put his hand out as if I was going to fall and this was after a little argument. It was a beautiful choice because here is this father and son that are at odds and still that instinctual, kind of paternal quality of reaching to make sure your sonâs okay. Just little things like that I thought were really beautiful.
How did the second nomination compare to the first one?
Joaquin: I donât think it was much different. I still have to go around, do a lot of things, wear the suit, hey âhiâ.. I really havenât thought that way. I think I got out of a lot of stuff the first time because Russell did everything. I just really didnât have to do it. And, I was working as well. I was out of the country when âGladiatorâ came up until the Oscars but for âWalk the Lineâ I was here so they had me. I had a few more things to do.
Are you in line for anything else after the next James movie if the strike happens?
Joaquin: I donât know. I donât know what Iâll do.
Your character in this is comfortable in the club scene but are you comfortable in that world? Is that your scene, personally?
Joaquin: Do I feel comfortable? No, itâs not my scene but I donât think I have a scene is the trouble. Iâve been to clubs. I went to these clubs in
So what do you like doing when you have time off?
Joaquin: Itâs terrible. No one ever believes me. I do nothing. TV? I will say that I do very much like Discovery Channel which I just watch a lot. Thereâs like four channels that are like History, Discovery and National Geographic and I basically just flip through those.
What do you recall from the night of your accident in the
Joaquin: Uh, it was day. I remember that. So thatâs a good start. It was funny, I donât remember being frightened at all, just more like fascinated that I was turned sideways and [something] was broken. I just heard this German voice saying âplease relaxâ. I was like âI know that voice. Is it Godâ? [laughter] And it was literally, did you see âGrizzly Manâ? When he listens to the video of the guy getting killed and he tells the guyâs girlfriend, âdonât ever, ever watchâ. It was that same voice. I was like âI am relaxedâ and heâs like âno. You must relaxâ. I think I really was relaxed.
Robert Duvall comes in.
Robert: Donât believe a word he says. [They hug]. Tell your brother-in-law (Casey Affleck) he was great in Jesse James.
Joaquin: Heâs great, fuckinâ great. Thatâs an amazing story, him.
Back to the accident. Thereâs a story that Werner told you not to light a cigarette and there was a puddle of gasoline right next to you. Do you recall that at all?
Joaquin: Thatâs totally ridiculous. No, because Werner disappeared before I had my cigarette. Another guy came around the back. The car was tilted in such a way that, if I climbed out the passenger side, the driver side was on the street, it was tilted at some lookout and I thought that the weight would then roll it over so I canât go out that way. And then this guy opened the very back door and it wasnât Werner. It was the other guy. And, I crawled through and said âthanks very muchâ and I turned around and Werner was long gone. Then I smoked next to the firemen.
Casey is your brother-in-law. Do you get together with Ben and go to family parties?
Joaquin: [Waves his arms in the air] The Phoenix/Affleck party! Come on! I gave myself first billing. No, we donât get together for parties but I go over and visit my sister and my nephew and my brother-in-law. Do you go to parties with the family. We were spending Christmas together. Have you guys seen Assassination of Jesse Jamesâ? Fuckingâ¦.
Heâs in âGone Baby Goneâ.
Joaquin: I havenât seen that yet. Did they do press here for that?
They did a press day in
Joaquin: Thatâs an unbelievable story how he got that job. He really persevered. Itâs pretty incredible. I think his work is awesome.
You donât talk in Spanish?
Joaquin: Un poquito.