Though they both come from show-business families, started performing at early ages and had movie successes as young adults, there were no guarantees that Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg would become two of Hollywood’s most accomplished leading men.
Wahlberg, 36, claims a string of both critical (“Boogie Nights,” “Three Kings,” “I Heart Huckabees”) and popular hits (“The Perfect Storm,” “The Italian Job,” “Four Brothers,” “The Departed”). Phoenix, 32, has worked with a who’s who of top directors from Gus Van Sant (“To Die For”), Oliver Stone (“U Turn”) and Ridley Scott (“Gladiator”) to M. Night Shyamalan (“Signs,” “The Village”) and James Mangold (“Walk the Line”).
The two pair up for the second time in this weekend’s “We Own the Night,” a crime thriller written and directed by James Gray, for whom they earlier made “The Yards.” They play two estranged brothers — one a cop, the other a nightclub manager — who get tangled up with the Russian mob in 1980s New York.
The passionate Phoenix ricochets from confident cut-up to sensitive self-doubter, sometimes within the same sentence while reformed criminal Wahlberg is a calm, cool, church and family guy. They complement each other beautifully on screen. The way things are going for these two, they should have many opportunities to do so again.
What makes you keep working together?
PHOENIX: He’s gorgeous to look at. (Laughs.) No, he is really hard-working — which means a lot to me. I think it’s something that I really value in other people.
WAHLBERG: Joaq feels like my brother. We’re comfortable and familiar with one another, and that level of trust and respect is there. And we also know how to push each other’s buttons, which brothers do constantly.
What’s it like to produce a movie together?
PHOENIX: Well, my role as producer is really as an actor that didn’t get paid as much as he was supposed to, therefore they offered him a production credit, and he agreed to it because he’s greedy.
WAHLBERG: Well let’s put it this way. Joaq called me and said there was a scene in the movie that he didn’t like, and we’re producing it, we should do something about it. It’s a scene that he’s in, and I’m like, “Well, what about it?” He goes, “I don’t know, I didn’t see the movie.” I’m like, “What are you talking about, you gotta see the movie!”
He’s like, no, “You’re the producer, you gotta tell James to cut it out.” I’m like, “Well you’re the producer, you gotta watch the movie and tell me what you’re talking about.” (Laughs.) He doesn’t like watching himself, though.
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Is that true?
PHOENIX: I haven’t seen the last six or seven movies I’ve done. It’s of no use to me. Perhaps there are some actors who can see things that they do wrong and make adjustments later on in other films. But I feel like, if you’re unhappy about it there’s nothing you can do about it, and then you just have to go and do a lot of press for a performance you think is awful. I’d rather just go, “I haven’t seen it!”
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Are either of you surprised that you’ve become such respected film artists?
WAHLBERG: Yeah, not too many people had done it before me. But once I realized what acting was, I felt like, well, part of me has been doing this for quite a long time anyway, getting in and out of trouble and b.s.-ing my way through life. So I really felt like I found my niche, and it became something that I completely fixated on.
PHOENIX: Well, I do have a long way to go as an actor. And I think that even if one didn’t, one should … assume that they have a long way to go. Because the moment that you stop searching is when it’s over.
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Joaquin, you’ve had two Oscar nominations, supporting for “Gladiator” and lead for your “Walk the Line” Johnny Cash.
PHOENIX: I don’t think there was much difference. It was still like, go there, do that thing, hey. It felt that way.
WAHLBERG: I saw him at the Golden Globes, and he looked like he would rather be anywhere else in the world. I said, “Joaq, enjoy it. It could be worse.”
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And how was it being the only nominee out of that dynamite cast of “The Departed” for you this year?
WAHLBERG: A very nice surprise. Certainly wasn’t expecting it. You’re in a movie with all those guys and I’d never been nominated before. I didn’t let it change the way I make decisions or go about what I do. But it was definitely nice to be there.
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Mark, you’re finishing up the thriller The Happening and preparing to play boxer Micky Ward in “The Fighter.” How are you holding up?
WAHLBERG: It’s tough some days. I’m working five days a week on “The Happening” and training five days a week, so I’m up at 4:30 every morning. And [Saturday], it’ll be a year straight that I’ve been training.
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Joaquin, is it tougher to go there mentally than doing anything physically?
PHOENIX: Honestly, it really just probably comes down to being bored or not. I’ve been on films where they were just kind of “regular guys,” and it was really tedious and boring to me. I don’t really enjoy acting enough to not want to experience something that feels like it really affects things. It’s like, if you were a surfer, would you want to surf where there were 2-foot waves, or would you want to surf on 10-foot waves?
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BAND OF BROTHERS
Older brother Donnie was a boy-band heartthrob in New Kids on the Block and has made a resurgence of sorts on the small screen, popping up in niche TV shows like “Boomtown” and “The Kill Point.”
Phoenix doesn’t publicly talk about the untimely death of his older brother, actor River Phoenix, from a drug overdose in 1993. He said, however, that he did not draw on the tragedy to prepare for his role as Cash.
WINNER: Mark. Any time you’re an inspiration for a TV series (HBO’s “Entourage’), you win.
FAMILY TIES … TO THE AFFLECKS
Wahlberg hails from Boston, as does the Affleck clan.
Phoenix’s sister, Summer Phoenix, has two children with husband and fellow actor Casey Affleck. Coincidentally, Joaquin and Casey both appeared in the 1995 Nicole Kidman thriller “To Die For.”
WINNER: Joaquin. Because … a true family tie.
POPCORN
While “The Italian Job” was an entertaining Hollywood heist flick, Wahlberg misfired big-time with the sniper flick “Shooter.” And remember 2001’s “Rock Star”?
Technically the only popcorn movie Phoenix has done is the Steve Martin comedy “Parenthood” in 1989, when he was a child actor. No shame in padding that allowance money.
WINNER: Joaquin. The man’s record is nearly impeccable.
OVERALL WINNER
Joaquin Phoenix
doesn’t talk the talk, but he walks the walk. In a close call, RedEye opts for Phoenix’s dark side over Wahlberg’s semicharmed kind of life
