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Interviewer: Did you go to an actorsschool?
River Phoenix: No, I started acting through auditioning and trial by error, basically.
I: How old were you when you started?
RP: Ten.
I: Is that so?
RP: Uhuh, television, commercials and then later you get cast in a film, if you're lucky.
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RP: I can't really explain why I understand what I understand, I just do. And to try to figure it out I think would kind
of ruin it, you know. I wanna leave it like a mine of gold, you know, without ever mining it, you know and selling it. I don't
wanna sell it off. I don't wanna talk about it, I don't wanna understand it in a way that will exploit the pureness, so I
just leave it. I don't understand it, but I believe in it.
I: You're a natural?
RP: I'm not saying anything.
I: I'm saying it.
RP: Okay, thank you very much.
I: Yeah, I thought you did a wonderful performance in that movie.
RP: Thank you very much.
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I: At one of the press conferences I heard you make a connection with how America treats their homeless, that was interesting.
RP: Absolutely. Well, I mean we all know it, I mean there's nothing to hide. It's very obvious there are priorities that
lie more in arms race or supporting like the world bank which has its subsidiaries and its affiliates spreading to develop
the third world or whatever. Spreading its havoc across our continent, you know. It's more like a police state now more so
than ever in the States. They're controlling things that get the culture in trouble. You know, it's like a pressure-cooker
and never turning the stove off. It cooks and cooks until it explodes!
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RP: "Idaho" just reminds you of the street level that is ignored. And perhaps you have a lot of that in Europe
and you do in fact, but we have so much more, you know, in concentrated areas where there is no way of integrating and finding
a way out, you know, you're just trapped to your perimeters.
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(RP briefly takes his sunglasses down, but doesn't show his eyes)
I: That was short.
RP: Well, I mean, the problem is that I believe very much in the Native American Indians who really owned this land beforehand.
And their idea was that a photo can take your soul. So of course I've compromised to some degree, but then I haven't, because
I'm playing another character in films.
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RP: Beer break! Haha. (looks to the side)
RP: It's imported and it's from Holland. (shows beercan)
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RP: Did you tell them the story yet? Uh, last night I was at a conference of some kind, it was terrible. And I was asked
to do Amsterdam TV by the company and I said; oh, yeah, well, where are they? And then he shows up, and I know Bram (the interviewer)
from the Chili Peppers and so then we got together and started this.
I: 'cause you normally don't do a lot...
RP: I don't do television.
RP: I don't want to sit there and be a puppet and become more like a speaking piece for their show than your own film.
So then you have shows all the time showing clips of the film, us speaking about the film. "And then we talk to the actor,
blah, blah, blah, Rubber Penis". And I sit down, "yeah, and then like, yeah, I had a fun time doing this project,
yeah..." (pulls a face) It's just stupid, man, it's just a waste of time.
I: Right.
RP: It bores me. And it scares the shit out of me too, to be frank.
I: To be in front of a camera?
RP: Oh, it's so frightning. That's why when I'm on a set I never look at the camera. You don't look at the camera. I'm
very frightened right now, I am dealing with it somehow.
I: Yeah, you're dealing with it quite well.
RP: But I really am frightened. This is very... yes, yes, I should be -?- to the Holland imported brewski. (brewski, hops,
yeast).
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I: You have this very particular point of view on how you want to work and then there's the business that you sometimes
will have to deal with.
RP: The business always goes for what you do best. And I've just made myself do best in the way I've wanted to. So, if
they get recognition like at the Venice film festival, the Toronto film festival, wherever it is, you know, in France, in
Holland, when critics start speaking up and they believe in something, then you have the power to get blow-jobs basically
from the corporate leaders. I mean, I've found myself being blown by America's film corporations. It's nice.
I: Yeah?
RP: Yeah, I come in their fucking lens.
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RP: We'll call you back, bye. (he says to somebody in the room who's on the phone)
RP: That's Gus van Sant, the director of the film, on the phone.
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RP: It's not about career. It's about believing in something, it's about prosperity. And it's about caring and empathizing
and wanting to create the best, the most true to life, the most real.
I: Well, that's something that you wouldn't hear a lot of Hollywood people say.
RP: That's why I don't hang out and talk to those Hollywood people, because they're there to hurt me, to hurt my views.
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