His Best Performance to Date...

Joaquin Phoenix appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night (2/11/09) and in my opinion, it was his best performance to date.

The video clip on YouTube had thousands of views already at 9 a.m. this morning. There are plenty of comments as to whether he was high on something or just putting on an act as part of a project he is doing with Casey Afflek. Whatever the case, his visit to the Late Show is clearly upping his 'presence' with the public, which certainly won't hurt both his current movie and anything to come in the near future.

If you haven't seen the clip, Joaquin appears on the Late Show wearing a Blue's Brothers-inspired suit, dark glasses, and a very scruffy beard. His answers and conversation with Dave seem quite impaired and disconnected, although a couple comments he makes, i.e. What do you have these guys gassed up on? (referring to the audience) and I've seen the guests on your show both seem to be double-sided comments that could be in fact addressing himeslf.

Those comments lead me to believe this is indeed just an act, maybe a little stunt, either to draw attention, get the public noticing, or just as part of the alleged project he is working on with Afflek. But the thing that really makes me believe it's an act is that at the very end of the interview, the part where normally the sound is cutting off, he turns his back to the audience, takes off the glasses, shakes Dave's hand, and can be heard to say, "Nice job." His body stance in that moment appears to be fully controlled and alert. I would think if he really was just a hopped up celebrity, he would not have taken off the glasses.

No matter if it was an act or just another Hollywood burnout, everyone is talking about and even bad publicity is still publicity.

A pretty ingenious PR stunt and a pretty great act, if you ask me.