Diddums. Casey Affleck admits that he ‘went broke’ filming his fail movie with Joaquin Phoenix. The movie, I’m Still Here, was filmed over two years and was revealed to be a fake documentary-style movie that Affleck thought anyone with two working eyes and ears would be fooled by. The film showed Phoenix, who would have made interesting material without the pretentious/ staged nature of the movie, doing coke/ hookers and getting pooped on. Or, as I like to call it ‘Wednesday’. That’s some mid-week pAArtying and moviegoers agreed. Affleck’s movie went up against his big brother’s movie, The Town (which topped the US box office and opened on Rotten Tomatoes to a 93% fresh rating), and only took $96,658 in its opening weekend. Sucks to be the less talented brother, and there’s something I never thought I’d say of these two. Speaking to The Telegraph in the UK, Affleck says he came clean about the hoax everyone knew about so as not to permanently damage Phoenix’s reputation. The movie was supposed to be a cynical look at Hollywood and its trappings. Not poop.
Casey Affleck has admitted that I’m Still Here, his hoax documentary about Joaquin Phoenix, was a “planned, staged and scripted work of fiction” that nearly bankrupted him. Affleck said the project was an essay on celebrity culture. “It was pretty much all within the realm of possibility: people use prostitutes, people use drugs, especially in Hollywood. We didn’t take it so far that it wasn’t believable,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Having something at stake is a great motivator and once this thing became public for me that was very helpful because there was no question: I had to see it through, no matter how long it took. I went broke. I hadn’t worked for more than a year, and I was pouring money into the movie. I had to stop for a month to do The Killer Inside Me. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the film – I was out of money. There was a lot at stake financially and, if we had left [the hoax] there, it would have been very damaging to Joaquin’s career.” [Cele|Bitchy]
Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix: I’m Still Here mockumentary movie trailer.
