River Phoenix interview where he is clearly on drugs

Does the full version of his brothers 911 call exist online? So sad.

A River (of drugs) runs through him.

That movie was his best, but also his downfall. He hobnobbed with a bunch of Seattle low lifes to get background for the role, and ended-up addicted.

He dabbled in drugs, but he was never truly addicted to anything unlike his murderer John Fruciante.

R4 he had massive levels of both cocaine and heroin in his body the night he died. Combined, they create this sort of morphine.

VIDEO = So handsome. What happened really was a tragedy and I rarely have sympathy for those who dope but he was so young...

It's not exactly apples to apples, but I think that Leonardo DiCaprio's career definitely benefitted from River's death.

They were both starring in things at the same time lol

R7 = And Juaquin Phoenix would have a low level Casey Affleck career--at best---if River was still alive.

VIDEO = The Phoenix Family....Weren't the parents in Children of God?....There is the first thing that screwed them up...

It was an incestuous family

Yes, I'll always think it was cult abuse that fucked him up.

[quote].Weren't the parents in Children of God?

[italic]In 1973, the family joined the religious organization known as the Children of God. His family settled in Caracas, Venezuela where the Children of God had stationed them to work as missionaries and fruit gatherers. According to Vanity Fair, Phoenix was raped at the age of four.[/italic]

Any religious upbringing can fuck up a person for life, let alone being raised in a cult notorious for rape, incest, and child abuse.

He sure was pretty. RIP.

OP, why didn't you find him attractive? I'm generally not into blondes, but I thought he was good-looking/sexy. I definitely preferred River over DiCaprio, because the former was more masculine IMO. In both looks and behavior. I've never been into the willowy, effete, blond, baby-faced, pretty boys.

DiCaprio was admittedly a big River fan. If you watch DOGFIGHT, you can see that Leo was heavily inspired by River's performance in that movie. I watched it for the first time two years ago and I kept thinking River was Leo throughout.

That said, I've always preferred Joaquin, particularly when he was younger. The dark hair, haunting green-eyed stare, and pout just did it for me.

R10 Joaquin's voice was so adorable as a child. In elementary school, I had a crush on a classmate with a similar-sounding raspy voice.

River looked so angelic in this interview to promote STAND BY ME.

I like River but the way so many of his fans act like every actor wouldn’t’ even been out of a job if he hadn’t died are annoying.

I like River but the way so many of his fans act like every actor would’ve been out of a job if he hadn’t died are annoying.

Joaquin Phoenix is a better actor than River and Casey Affleck is a better actor than Ben. Leonardo would have still happened. River would have likely retired or still OD'ed.

The way some DLers go on about this guy, you'd think he was Helen of Troy. If there ever was a more basic looking guy turned into a minor Hollywood legend, it was River. We get it, many of you grew up on his movies or where into this (cough) young man, but he was basic. Maybe talented, but no more so than a dozen other actors working in front of the camera today.

were not where*

If he didn't die young and pretty and if he wasn't made into this type of martyr by his family. He wouldn't generate nearly as much discussion. Other examples: Heath Ledger, James Dean and Paul Walker. And Corey Haim, Jonathan Brandis and Brad Renfro don't get nearly as much idol worship or discussion because they died as worn out junkies with dead careers and people were less sympathetic.

River looked like an anime character come to life in RUNNING ON EMPTY, particularly in this scene:

Was Brandis really a junkie? I hadn't heard that.

He had a sweet, vulnerable, child-like quality his brother doesn't really share. He had sensitivity in spades.

River was good looking but not attractive to me at all. He was a mess who died because he was an addict. A glorified one

[quote]He had massive levels of both cocaine and heroin in his body the night he died. Combined, they create this sort of morphine.

Wow, that was an awesome 1O1 of alchemy, Professor Cuthbert Binns. Are you sure the morphine doesn't block their bowel movements too long to allow them to turn them into solid gold or do you also give them some carminative sage? Or maybe anise if I may ask?

R27 Joaquin plays characters who are adults. Adults tend to not be childlike. River was childlike because he was still in his adolescence when he died. Just like James Dean. So eternally a teenager. If River was alive today, nobody would describe him as childlike or sweet.

Yeah, it's apparent that he was high in OPs interview. River was not a junkie. He went through periods when he dabbled , but then was clean for extended periods. His real addiction was smoking, and was trying to quit with clove cigarettes. He was clean during whole shooting of the film Dark Blood in the weeks before. He was eating organics foods and the only vice during this time was cigarettes and weed. He lapsed in the Viper Room when he was offered a spiked drink from John Frusciante and like the trusting fool he accepted it from his friend..

I saw an episode of one of those shows about the 90s and he was a heavy user every time he was not filming r30. He would always clean up while working and go months clean, but the minute he would go back to NYC or LA, he would start using again.

Needless to say he should have moved to a more quiet place.

River was an alcoholic in his teen years. That's an addiction. And he was hanging around other junkies for a while, so eventually he would pick up that habit. People in Hollywood hand out drugs like candy. People act like he was not impressionable and dumb with a sense of invincibility like every young man.

In R10’s video…check out Daddy’s death stare at the other members of the family while they are responding to interview questions. Father Phoenix reminds me of Michael McDonald’s portrayal of John Ramsey in MadTV’s “Hollywood Squares” sketch.

R30, positively! And no one willingly drinks a speedball.

DL has become more and more Tumblr-like with all the fangirls squealing over cute nonthreatening boys like River, Timothee, Froy, James Dean, Keanu, Kpop, etc and making them out to be "pretty little angels."

Those aren't fangirls. They are old gay men who like young boys.

River was a special guy .

Is this a secret pedo thread?

Leonardo DiCaprio was in The Boys' Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape and getting a lot of attention for both roles. He was likely signed on for The Basketball Diaries, Total Eclipse and The Quick and the Dead before River's OD. Leo has the more aggressive and social-climbing personality that creates a celebrity which River did not. River would have either retired, ended up washed up, die from overdose or get sober and move into minor roles, TV and indie pictures.

Joaquin Phoenix was adorable when he was a kid named Leaf. And before anyone calls me a pedo, he's older than me and I was a kid when I noticed him, too. I remember River said several times that he was nothing as an actor compared to his brother.

[quote]Is this a secret pedo thread?

Welcome on board R38, my name is Otto and I'll be your young master tonight!

R40 he was just humble. he was an amazing natural talent and i wish we could've gotten to see the type of actor he'd grow into. joaqin is great but he didn't get into the game in a serious way until he was an adult

that interview OP posted is hard to watch. nobody helped this kid who was clearly overwhelmed and hurting.

[quote]It's not exactly apples to apples, but I think that Leonardo DiCaprio's career definitely benefitted from River's death.

I came here to say this, R7.

It is kind of pointless though. River died really young, a long time ago. Sad. Cute. Forgotten.

I don't believe any of the BS that people want to know what kind of actor he'd grow into. You're just reliving your old jerk offs R42. And still jerking off to a dead kid from 30 years ago. River Phoenix would be 51 years old now. FIFTY ONE.

The guys who start these threads are all in arrested sexual development. To be kind. I bet your walls are covered in Teen Beat magazine covers.

My theory was Brandis got molested in Hollywood and just couldn't get past it. He probably saw guys who molested him thriving in Hollywood and it caused him to snap.. I never heard anything about drugs with him. LINK = Brandis Interviews. Totally sober.

Sorry, but I wanted to slap the sunglasses off his face and couldn’t watch.

He was a lovely-looking guy, though.

Also, Joaquin looks just like the dad now.

Did you watch Soleil Moon Frye's documentary Kid90, R46?

I don't know if what his father says in the interview below is true but in the documentary it looked like Jonathan had been very close to Soleil.

[quote]In making her new documentary, Kid90, Soleil Moon Frye combed through scores of old videos, audio recordings and diaries — and made some bittersweet discoveries regarding her friend, actor Jonathan Brandis, who died by suicide in 2003.

[quote]”I found so many voicemails Jonathan left me when we were kids," the actress, 44, who currently stars on Peacock's reboot of Punky Brewster, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "Some of them were 10 minutes long, his innermost thoughts. It just made me cry listening to them. He was a real friend."

[quote]”Jonathan was very smart and he was very polite and always easygoing," his father Greg Brandis tells PEOPLE. "In a sad way, he was probably bipolar. [His death] wasn't due to the entertainment industry. I look back now, and in his 20s he showed signs of manic depression. I hope that anyone suffering can go get help."

[quote]For Frye, reflecting on Brandis' death, as well as the losses of other friends to drugs and suicide, revealed an important lesson.

[quote]”I had some elements of guilt not seeing [the pain]," she says. "How often do we really look at each other and go, 'How are you?' and actually hear what someone is saying? I learned that I just wasn't listening in the way I do now."

Kid90 is on Hulu. I think I saw DiCaprio's name as one of the producers.

[quote]joaqin is great but he didn't get into the game in a serious way until he was an adult

He's said he purposely dropped out because after he grew out of kid roles, where he had quite a lot of success, he kept getting really shitty roles offered in his 20s and concluded he'd wait until he was a little older for meatier roles. Don't know how much of that is his own spun narrative, but that's what he says about why he hardly worked in his 20s. I suspect recovering from the trauma of what happened to River when he was only 19 factored in there too.

Brandis was upset and depressed once he couldn’t get roles anymore.

R49 Joaquin worked a lot in his twenties. He had several hit movies (e.g., GLADIATOR, SIGNS, WALK THE LINE), two Oscar nominations, one Golden Globe win, and one Grammy. After PARENTHOOD (1989), which was released shortly before he turned 15 and was a huge hit, Joaquin inexplicably took a six-year break and didn't return to acting until TO DIE FOR (1995) when he was 21. By many accounts, he was burned out with performing, which is why he quit as a young teen. He had been acting professionally since he was 8, and before that he and his siblings busked on the streets for money.

River died on Halloween 1993, three days after Joaquin's 19th birthday. If you guys remember, the press went crazy after River's death. Joaquin's 9-1-1 call was played ad nauseam on the news. He was even hounded by the paparazzi so much (I guess 'cause he was River's only brother, he was there when it happened, and he had made the call) that the family left the country for about a year, until things cooled down. When Joaquin returned to the U.S. , he met with Gus Van Sant, who had previously directed River in MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO and Rain in EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, to read for TO DIE FOR. And the rest is history.

It seems to me that Joaquin was pushed to replace River after his death. And it was a successful move because he became bigger than River ever was.

He comes across as an asshole trying to be edgy in that video

Jonathan being bipolar makes sense. Some people are depressed or troubled because of faulty genetics and chemical imbalances. Do not be fooled by good looks, that's just an outer surface.

Joaquin doesn't have the same vibe as River. Joaquin excels at scumbags.

Joaquin is a better actor. That's all that matters. River was better looking and died young before he got old and ugly. That's his "vibe."

Nonsense. River was tender and sensitive, qualities boys his age often work to hide. He projected those qualities on screen and had many an audience member in his thrall because of it.

River was not different from any other white boy in a liberal upper class urban neighborhood. Not saying he didn't have charisma and beauty and sensitivity but he's not the only actor in history with that. Great actors project vulnerability. Joaquin projects the same vulnerability and sweetness as River. The difference is Joaquin isn't pretty and delicate looking. So the perception is different. People empathize better with beauty.

River wasn't all that beautiful. He had a lazy eye. Joaquin has a danger about him. It's not just about pretty or otherwise.

What danger about Joaquin? He looks fragile and has that doe-in-the headlights stare. Like I could push him down with one finger.

Also River played dangerous in Dogfight and Dark Blood pretty well. River actually looked very angry and pissed in many of his photos and interviews. Passive aggressive demeanor.

There's malevolence in Joaquin that has been used in numerous projects. He's more of an antagonist than a protagonist.

Same poster talking to itself all through this thread. Sounds like a nutcase AND a pedophile.

R60 you don't understand acting. Do you? It's playing pretend but you get paid.

R58 being that beautiful in spite of a lazy eye is a feat, imo.

to whoever is saying Joaquin is a better actor, i think it's really impossible to say that. river never got a chance to grow into the types of roles Joaqin took, and in fact, the types of movies that made him famous weren't the types being made when River was on his come-up. also because of River's looks, he played more romantic leads than Joaquin would ever be sought for.

[Quote] you don't understand acting. Do you? It's playing pretend but you get paid.

Of course, dear. But some actors excel in areas that others don't.

Also pretty wild/sad to see his transformation. This was his last photoshoot. His face is drawn and gaunt.

Barely resembles himself from just a few years before

His looks were overrated

High whilst interviewing? What a loser

R68 Incidentally, Judy Davis was a cunt to him while making his last unfinished movie Dark Blood (also co-starring Jonathan Pryce). According to the director, River was initially excited to be working with her, but grew to resent her (even became sick at the sight of her) as production progressed.

Did Davis expect professionalism?

He should have stuck with Martha Plimpton. That dame is no nonsense.

R70 the director said she was needlessly cruel. He was interviewed for one of River's documentaries.

R70 i wonder what really happened with Judy Davis. river was famously kind and charming and the story goes that Judy's hatred for the director of the movie oozed out onto River and Pryce. River was not used to people being cruel to him and as she was an idol of his, it really got him down when she was impervious to his charms. she sounds like a nightmare.

on the other hand, perhaps she was being tough on him because she knew of his drug issues and no one else was addressing them. surely she was a huge bitch but maybe she was frustrated watching river be enabled.

I expect a drug addicted co-star is more of a nightmare.

R71 i've much thought the same. martha and his second girlfriend, sue, were both with river for several years each and confronted him on many occasions about his substance abuse problems to no avail.

R74 River was clean for the shooting of that film and it's corroborated by the director and Pryce so, no. she was just a cunt.

Let's worship at the altar of this golden patron god of twinks. All hail River!

Was River drugs tested on the set of the movie? Even that doesn't mean anything if he paid someone for their unine.

aside from the massive speedball they found in his blood during the autopsy they only found traces of weed. the coroner said the cocaine/heroin had all been consumed at once.

Is that fact important to you? You worship less if he didn't have clean periods?

On one of the Phoenix threads someone said Kate Mara didn't want Rooney to bring Joaquin to Kate's wedding because she was afraid Rooney would be too preoccupied with trying to make Joaquin comfortable and not have a good time. Not sure if this was a DL'er projecting or if it's true. As well, another commenter mentioned the Mara family did not want Rooney to marry Joaquin which is interesting because for a while they were engaged but they never did get married.

^ Also that he is not into sports. Lol.

He and Keanu enjoyed intimate times.

“ only found traces of weed. the coroner said the cocaine/heroin had all been consumed at once.”

Yea, consumed as in a spiked drink with intention to kill him . A hot shot

Yikes, r1. No wonder Joaquin is still, understandably, torn up about that. I didn't know he literally watched his brother convulsing on the sidewalk to death. That would fuck anyone up.

I 100% believe Keanu was in love with him. He called River the Juliet to his Romeo and can't talk about him without tearing up to this day.

There was for sure something with Keanu and River that went beyond friendship. We'll likely never know if it was an actual relationship or fucking around that involved feelings, but Keanu LOVED him. That much is clear. It also raised my eyebrows when I found out River wrote and partially directed that fireside scene with Keanu..."I love you, and you don't pay me" breaks my heart to this day.

Sure, sure. River and David Geffen are very different types.

“ No wonder Joaquin is still, understandably, torn up about that. I didn't know he literally watched his brother convulsing on the sidewalk to death. That would fuck anyone up.”

He also witnessed John Frusciante hand River the Dixie cup filled with lethal concoction of heroin and cocaine . No one willingly drinks a speedball period! Joaquin knows his brother was murdered.

R88 murdered? that would mean there was intent and there is no way to prove that.

River was awe-inspiring in many ways but he was also basically a child still (23? no age to die...) and made bad decisions. accepting an unknown substance from a massive heroin addict was not a good choice. trusting other heroin addicts is never a good idea.

Most healthy male friendships are like that. It's brotherhood. I don't think they were lovers but did like to tease the public like in that interview they had. Both were vocal gay allies and wanted to sell the film they were proud to make.

R89, river drank his heroin . Find someone who willingly drinks heroin WITH cocaine! If you say you know people, you are a fucking liar !!

R91 take a breath. and what i said still stands: don't ingest anything given to you by a junkie.

Why didn't Fruscato drink his heroin? Who thought to make a heroin drink? It wasn't a trap house.

R92, you just don’t get it .

ok R94 you're just smarter than everyone i guess

51 R45? He’d be 51? Oh the horror! A year younger than Paul Rudd then. River was talented and handsome and is remembered.

R96, River was also by all accounts a good soul

Good souls don't put their loved ones through what he did. Martha Plimpton was right to walk away.

Fun fact: River and Keanu were both uncut and together decided to get circumcised at the same time. I believe it was primarily because they didn't like to shower regularly and that was the best way to keep their dicks cleaner.

That is neither fun nor funny.

R99 what's the source for this? don't tell me you heard it on DL...

I believe it was an assistant director on one of his films who said it in an interview.

[Quote] He had massive levels of both cocaine and heroin in his body the night he died. Combined, they create this sort of morphine.

[Quote] Wow, that was an awesome 1O1 of alchemy, Professor Cuthbert Binns. Are you sure the morphine doesn't block their bowel movements too long to allow them to turn them into solid gold or do you also give them some carminative sage? Or maybe anise if I may ask?

[Quote] —Nicolas Flamel

^R28 is why I come here.

Leonardo Dicaprio was already on his way when Phoenix died. His breakthrough This Boy's Life had been released and he had already filmed What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Phoenix would've been too old for The Basketball Diaries and Titanic.

Why did Johnny Depp have to do some black magick voodoo to curse River? Depp hated competition though he acted like he didn't care about his fame. But just look at how Depp is today, it's karma. I doubt River would ever end up like a joke like Depp who lost his looks, his reputation and credibility.

River’s autopsy report showed he was not a serious addict . His consumption of the speedball was in a cup . He did not know what was in cup. The autopsy indicated there were no injection marks , no signs drugs were snorted or smoked . The levels would kill a small horse . Who the hell willingly drinks a speedball? River was murdered and big cover up .

Why was he murdered?

He wasn't murdered. Ignore the conspiracy loon.

He had a fabulous career!

Leo got his career

[quote] Phoenix would've been too old for The Basketball Diaries and Titanic.

River Phoenix was 5 years older than Kate Winslet, and that would have been a great age for Jack in Titanic. James Cameron said that he originally wanted River for the role of Jack. Cameron must have seen River in "Dogfight."

He was a nice guy. A sensitive soul. A good actor. It's a shame he died. I wonder if not going to public school left his heart intact. He didn't deal with all the bullshit fakeness of high school, bullying etc.

^ No, he just had to sexually service pedophiles in The Children of God cult, and sing in the streets for money so his parents could eat. Then later get seduced into using street drugs and slumming with teen hustlers for the sake of Gus Van Sant's "art."

Plenty of kids go to public school btw, and manage to keep their "heart intact," whatever that means.

You're mistaken r113