{"id":67001,"date":"2025-07-16T10:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67001\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T10:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:47:10","slug":"joaquin-phoenix-sorry-for-letterman-interview-horrible-uncomfortable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67001\/","title":{"rendered":"Joaquin Phoenix Sorry for Letterman Interview: Horrible, Uncomfortable"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJoaquin Phoenix<\/a> was the guest of honor on \u201cThe Late Show<\/a> With Stephen Colbert\u201d on Tuesday night, marking his first appearance on the late-night staple since his infamous 2009 interview with Dave Letterman and subsequent on-air apology the next year. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscar winner memorably appeared on Letterman\u2019s \u201cLate Show\u201d<\/a> in character (shaggy hair, untamed beard and all) from his mockumentary \u201cI\u2019m Still Here,\u201d which documented his life after the spoof announcement that he was retiring from acting to pursue a hip-hop career. The interview, some of which was used in the film, was incredibly awkward and led the public to believe Phoenix was having a mental breakdown.<\/p>\n

\n\tSitting down with Colbert, Phoenix said it was his intention to get a big reaction out of, not just Letterman, but the public at large. However, he said he did give the show a heads up. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I came on this show with Dave, I originally did the pre-interview in character and I realized that it was just a little silly, so I called them back and I said, \u2018Listen, this is what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m coming out here and I\u2019m doing this whole thing. And I just want Dave to like, lacerate me. I just want it to be really dangerous,’\u201d Phoenix said. \u201cThat was the kind of intention \u2014 I just always wanted to get this reaction and see how I would respond to that. So it was beneficial for no one to know, except when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Phoenix admitted that the interview itself was \u201chorrible,\u201d adding: \u201cIt was so uncomfortable. I regret it, I\u2019ll never do it again. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the two shared a laugh, Colbert told Phoenix, \u201cI don\u2019t know if [Letterman\u2019s] watching.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe might be and I just need to say, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Phoenix responded. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor, who stars in Ari Aster\u2019s new movie \u201cEddington,\u201d did apologize to the late-night host when he came back on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d in 2010. \u201cI hope I didn\u2019t offend you in any way,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cYou\u2019ve interviewed many, many people and I assumed that you would know the difference between a character and a real person, but I apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReflecting on the moment with Colbert, Phoenix concluded: \u201cIt was strange because in some ways, it was a success, and it was also just one of the worst nights of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWatch Phoenix\u2019s full interview with Colbert below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joaquin Phoenix was the guest of honor on \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d on Tuesday night, marking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,47407,47408,1589,13896,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-67001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-david-letterman","12":"tag-joaquin-phoenix","13":"tag-phoenix","14":"tag-the-late-show","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114862518793650107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}