Joaquin Phoenix grew uncomfortable with his photoshoot so he started doing dishes, 1996
Joaquin Phoenix has never been someone who feels comfortable with his fame. Following the death of his brother River in 1993 he retreated from the spotlight and essentially gave up acting for a while. He didn’t step in front of a camera for another two years when he appeared in Gus Van Zan’t’s To Die For.
Interviews with Phoenix are notoriously strange. He’ll either go inside himself or become combative with the interviewer, and every once in a while he’ll do something completely off the wall… like doing the dishes at a local restaurant. Photographer George Holz explained how he got this fascinating shot:
We were shooting at the funky Bell Café in Soho. Joaquin had this nervous energy — I had a lot of set ups in mind, but realized right away he wasn’t the kind to sit still for a photograph, so I threw all my ideas to the wind and totally shifted gears. I abandoned all my pre-lit set-ups and we wandered around the Café. We talked a lot—the conversation ranged from vegan cuisine to the paparazzi and his late brother River. He went into the kitchen and there were all these dirty dishes stacked up. He said: ‘Man, these need a wash!’ and put on an apron and just started scrubbing.
