• Home
• /
• Entertainment

I don’t want this carrot

In a lengthy interview in the November edition of Interview magazine, the 37-year-old actor said he was dreading the possibility of having to take part in the media circuit for Hollywood’s awards season, which culminates with the Oscars in February.

“I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t believe in it” Phoenix said. “It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot. It’s totally subjective. Pitting people against each other... It’s the stupidest thing in the whole world.”

Phoenix was Oscar-nominated for his role as country music legend Johnny Cash in the 2005 film Walk the Line. In 2009 he said he would quit acting, but it was a ruse as part of Casey Affleck’s spoof 2010 documentary, I’m Still Here that aimed to explore the nature of celebrity, but received some poor reviews.

For The Master, Phoenix is expected to figure in this year’s round of nominations for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and other trophies for his role as a war veteran struggling to fit in to mainstream society who meets up with the charismatic leader of a cult organisation.

Phoenix described the period when Walk The Line was up for multiple awards seven years ago as “one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life.”

“I never want to have that experience again. I don’t know how to explain it - and it’s not like I’m in this place where I think I’m just above it - but I just don’t ever want to get comfortable with that part of things,” he said in the interview.

The Master which also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, is Phoenix’s first feature film since I’m Still Here, which chronicled his supposed retirement from acting to launch a career as a rapper.

Phoenix called that experience “unbelievably liberating” and said it was hard afterwards to find exciting projects that kept him on his toes as an actor.

“I mean, everything that they teach you when you’re a kid about acting is completely...wrong. They tell you to memorise your lines, follow your light, and hit your marks. Those are the three things that you shouldn’t do.

“You should not learn your lines, you should not hit your mark, and you should never follow your light. Find your light - that’s my opinion,” he said.