{"id":70147,"date":"2025-07-17T14:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70147\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:52:08","slug":"joker-star-joaquin-phoenix-says-infamous-letterman-interview-was-horrible-and-hed-never-do-it-again-one-of-the-worst-nights-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70147\/","title":{"rendered":"Joker Star Joaquin Phoenix Says Infamous Letterman Interview Was ‘Horrible’ and He’d ‘Never Do It Again’: ‘One of the Worst Nights of My Life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix recently returned to The Late Show after a whopping 15 years \u2014 but something else also happened: he apologized for his infamous David Letterman interview<\/a> from 2009 that took place on the show before Letterman turned the reins over to Stephen Colbert. <\/p>\n

\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 told Colbert<\/a> on July 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the kind of intention,\u201d he continued. \u201cI 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

\"null\"<\/a>Joaquin Phoenix during his interview with Late Show host David Letterman in 2009. Photo by John Paul Filo\/CBS via Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Phoenix went on to admit the interview ended up being \u201chorrible\u201d despite giving the team a heads up, adding: \u201cIt was so uncomfortable. I regret it, I\u2019ll never do it again. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, Colbert quipped back to Phoenix\u2019s apology. \u201cI don\u2019t know if [Letterman\u2019s] watching,\u201d he joked, to which the actor responded. \u201cHe might be and I just need to say, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, Phoenix made sure to double down before concluding. \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 he said.<\/p>\n

The actor \u2014 who made the recent late night appearance to promote the new Ari Aster film Eddington<\/a>, in which he stars \u2014 was a guest on the show in 2009, looking unkempt and worse for the wear while acting fully in character to support the release of his mockumentary film I\u2019m Still Here<\/a>. The film followed his life after a gag announcement that he\u2019d left acting to pursue a rap career, and it included the deeply awkward and bizarre interview, which ultimately led the public to think Phoenix was suffering from mental illness.<\/p>\n

He famously first apologized for the interview<\/a> directly to Letterman on air the following year in 2010. \u201cI hope I didn\u2019t offend you in any way,\u201d Phoenix 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

Photo by John Paul Filo\/CBS via Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joker star Joaquin Phoenix recently returned to The Late Show after a whopping 15 years \u2014 but something…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":70148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-70147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114869144340684503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70147","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=70147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}