Casey Affleck did promotional duties for his new documentary on Joaquin Pheonix’s lost year, I’m Still Here, with an appearance in Venice for the premiere last night. The film reportedly has some very graphic scenes, and distribution has not been without controversy. Casey has been sued by sexual harassment by two different female collaborators, both of whom allege that he accosted them for sex, became hostile when he refused, and ultimately owed them money when they left the project. Joaquin wasn’t there for the premiere, but Casey claimed he was in Venice at least. Casey gave reporters his take on the film and insisted that it’s not a put on, although he claims to leave that up for viewers to decide:

On Monday in Venice, where his film was screened out of competition at the Film Festival, Affleck said he’s leaving the answer up to the audience.

“Elliptically, I would say … I sincerely don’t want to influence people’s interpretation,” Affleck told reporters. “I can tell you there is no hoax. It makes me think of ‘Candid Camera’ or something.”

The film is full of dark, sometimes graphic scenes about the Academy Award-nominated Phoenix, whose decision to go for a music career and concurrent decline was fodder for late-night comics.

In one scene, Phoenix banters about the irony of his life being depicted in film, when he is trying to get away from the industry. The film follows Phoenix to his last acting and press events, where he grumbles that he “hates” acting.

“I think everyone at some point in their life hates their jobs and the people they are around,” he says in opening scenes to explain why he wants to change his life despite his talent and enormous success, which includes an Oscar nomination for playing Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”

What follows are scenes depicting his negative downturn. There’s drug use, graphic language, the search for online sex, a meeting with a prostitute and other hard core scenes, such as of Phoenix attacking a spectator at his own concert.

Throughout the film, Phoenix gains weight and lets his hair and beard grow long and unkempt.

“I know that he is someone that doesn’t shy away from letting me see all the different aspects of his personality and if he was willing to do it and I was willing to do it I owed it to him to make it as unflinching look at him as I possibly could,” said Affleck, who recently starred in the film “The Killer Inside Me…”

Hoax or no hoax, Phoenix gives an all-out performance, which begs the question he asked himself at the beginning of the documentary: Is the actor playing a role or is a role playing the actor?

While the actor’s narcissism is central to the project, the film stands as a portrait of an artist trying to break out of the jail of the same celebrity culture upon which he is dependent.

“When I watched the movie, I am not repulsed by him and I feel for him and I understand him better than I did at beginning of the movie. I have a lot of love for him,” Affleck said.

[AP via Huffington Post]

I really bought Joaquin’s “act” or non-act on Letterman, but now that he’s “recovered” and is back to his old smug ass attractive self I’m thinking this whole thing was a dumb media experiment that these two tried to cash in on. I’m interested to read what the critics say about this film once it’s out. It comes out in limited release in the US this weekend. I won’t be seeing it given the disturbing advance details, but I love reading reviews, especially negative ones, and these could be scathing.

Here’s Casey in Venice yesterday. Doesn’t he look thrilled to be there? Credit: WENN.com