I’ve always admired people who can walk into an awkward situation and handle it with a quick wit, improvisation and aplomb. It’s a quality that I constantly strive to cultivate in myself. It’s also a quality that David Letterman has often been able to tap while interviewing some of his more difficult guests, most recently with a heavily bearded (and heavy sedated) Joaquin Phoenix on Wednesday’s Late Night show:
Letterman took would’ve been a ten-minute disaster for many other hosts and with a combination of “steering”, harnessing the audience’s goodwill toward Phoenix and gentle ribbing (“Can you tell us about your days with the Unabomber?”) turned it into one of his more memorable interviews. He even managed to evoke a smile and compliment from his spaced-out guest: “You’re a funny dude.”
Kudos to Dave for pulling it off!
Bonus reading material: Time has compiled Letterman’s top ten disastrous interviews.
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OMG, this is awesome. But now I'm also beginning to suspect it could be a Kaufman-esque thing pulled by Joaquin. It is THAT weird.
I have to believe this is an act by Joaquin, Letterman was fantastic.
Joaquin is too talented and too strong of an actor for this not to be a huge put-on. If it's not a put-on, it's tragic, but I would bet money that it is.
I'm not convinced that wasn't Zach Galafinakis.
About 1-2 mins in I immediately thought this was a hoax or character that Phoenix is playing. As good as Dave is at interviewing you can easily see the setup questions and prepared jokes. Phoenix responses are not that of someone that is out of it. You can see that later on when he does respond.
It is almost impossible for me to watch any of the late night talk shows. Never any real substance comes out of them. Of course I am spoiled and biased since I listen to Howard Stern do real interviews and not these glossy Hollywood interviews.
Joaquin likes to take roles as the odd one out, but that works for him as an actor so this interview with Letterman might complement his career