Blog Post 5: Vanity Fair Joaquin Phoenix Cover Story Article Analysis
- Find the lede and decide whether or not it worked well
The lede of this piece sets up the discussion for Phoenix and his family’s experience with the religious cult. However, I feel that this perhaps was not the best opening to the cover story as a majority of the story revolves around Phoenix himself, his veganism, and his several acting projects, not so much his childhood. Though it does help to give a bit of context into what inspired the family’s move and eventual success in Los Angeles, I thought it to be a bit unnecessary. The author mentioning his siblings does eventually work for the story because the impact of Phoenix’s brother’s death is later touched on toward the end of the piece.
2. Find the nut graf or thesis
There is not much of a thesis; this piece reads more like a long-form narrative/synopsis of the actor and less about any one topic or theme. If anything, I’d say the nut graf comes about five paragraphs into the story: “In 1979 they piled into a station wagon — with a new last name, Phoenix — and drove to Hollywood, where they reinvented themselves as an unlikely troupe of child actors and singers who appeared in TV shows like Family Ties and Hill Street Blues, espoused veganism and animal rights, and featured a beautiful eldest son, the shooting star River Phoenix.”
3. Is the piece literary? If so, find 2–3 examples — are there descriptive elements? Compelling characters? Scenes created?
The author Joe Hagan’s description of Phoenix’s performance as Arthur Fleck/Joker in the film Joker certainly adds literary elements to the piece. ”As Arthur Fleck, Phoenix leans into his physical features, from the scar on his upper lip (not a surgically fixed cleft, he says, but a nonsurgical scar he was born with) to his leonine gaze, sad-sack grin, and distended shoulder, which he was also born with,” the author describes.
Descriptive elements of present-day moments also made the piece feel more literary: “Now, 26 years later, Phoenix drives up in a beat-up old black Lexus, warm and smiling in a pair of white karate pants and well-worn Converse sneakers, a cigarette dangling from his lip and his hair not so much combed back as yanked into submission.” Finally, the discussion of Phoenix’s moral intensity and sense of comedy coupled with vulnerability assist in highlighting a compelling character — him as the Joker: “In his latest role, as Arthur Fleck in the psychological comic book drama Joker, he transforms himself into a tortured and mentally unstable loner driven to highly inhumane acts of violence — against humans — in pursuit of a quixotic stand-up comedy career. On camera his cackling laughter, sheepish grin, and slow-blinking eyes channel unexpected heartbreak and humanity.”
4. How is the writer involved? Is he or she narrating? A character? Explain.
Hagan inserts himself into the story as he details the setting of his interview with Phoenix. “When I show up to his mission-style bungalow on a steep canyon road in the Hollywood Hills, he’s in the kitchen boiling a pot of sweet potatoes for his vegan dogs, Oskar and Soda, the latter a large white pit bull mix he rescued from euthanasia 13 years ago.” The author later describes the moment Phoenix called him after screening the Joker film. “After watching Phoenix as the maniacal creep Arthur Fleck, I went outside to discover my rental car had been towed — the rookie move of a non-Angeleno. It was 8:30 at night, just in time for a prescheduled phone call from Joaquin Phoenix.”
He also quotes Phoenix telling him to “do your thing,” “it’s up to you,” “enjoy your swastika,” and other direct comments. By using personal pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘me,’ Hagan makes it clear that while he is primarily serving as the narrator, he is also an active character within his own piece.
5. What other sources or info was used to bolster the piece? Were stats or figures used effectively?
It was helpful for Hagan to include commentary from other actors to give a different perspective on the topics he discussed. For instance, Robert DeNiro, Phoenix’s co-star in Joker, gave readers insight into their relationship on set and how the two actors prepared differently for their roles: “His character and my character, we didn’t need to talk about anything,” says De Niro. “We just say, ‘Do the work. Relate as the characters to each other.’ It makes it simpler and we don’t [talk]. There’s no reason to.” He also included a heartfelt line from Rooney Mara, Phoenix’s partner.
6. Find the kicker and decide if it worked or not.
I thought the ending was a nice final point to bring up the increasingly porous line between fiction and reality, especially in regard to Hollywood cinema. Hagan’s point that Joker’s story line is uncomfortably close to current events related to shootings worked as well. “We’re making a movie about a fictional character in a fictional world, ultimately, and your hope is that people take it for what it is,” he says. “You can’t blame movies for a world that is so fucked up that anything can trigger it. That’s kind of what the movie is about. It’s not a call to action. If anything it’s a call to self-reflection to society.” Phoenix adds that it is important to examine ourselves and our own issues.
The kicker was a long quote from Phoenix on how he views film-making and his love for his life. I thought it was effective because its realism allows readers to gain insight into how actors process after taking on an emotionally or physically draining role, as well as how they disconnect from their characters’ lives post-production.
