I’m not going to pretend like Joaquin Phoenix wasn’t probably high as a kite on Letterman last week, but I’m quite frustrated that everybody’s been giving Dave a pass for conducting one of the worst interviews I’ve seen in quite awhile.
There are certain things you do not do while conducting an interview. One of the biggest no-no’s is asking closed questions. NEVER ask a question that could be answered by yes, no or any other one or two word response. Dave does that repeatedly, even after it is obvious that Joaquin is in a less-than-conversational mood.
Another stupid thing to do in an interview is to insult your subject. Dave does that from his opening remarks through the bitter end. I’ve watched Letterman before and I know he can be quite a dick to guests, but I’m sure being insulted from the first word out of Dave’s mouth to the last was not helping Joaquin adopt a chatty demeanor.
When Dave started to talk about the movie he said that it’s a great movie and Joaquin is great in it, but then he asked Joaquin who the lovely lady in the movie with him is. Joaquin looked confused, and while I’m sure his state of mind had a lot to do with it, there happen to be several lovely women in that movie.
After Dave answered his own question, he kissed Joaquin’s ass again, to which Joaquin said, “Thank you.” That’s perfectly acceptable behavior for someone who’s just received a compliment.
Joaquin actually started to open up after Letterman’s soliloquy about how sad he was that Joaquin is retiring from acting. Joaquin said it was difficult to talk about something so personal in front of a live studio audience and the rest of God and country. It was a pretty lame answer, but at least it was an open question that required Joaquin to talk a bit. I’ll give Dave a point or two for that.
I don’t deny that Joaquin had a big part in one of the most awkward interviews of all time. He was chewing gum, which is totally inappropriate. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming, which is pretty weak considering he was there to promote a movie. BUT, there are a ton of people who go on talk shows that don’t know what clip they have and Dave acted like this was some sort of unforgivable, mortal sin.
If I were Joaquin, I wouldn’t have been bending over backwards to make the interview great either, since Dave started off the whole thing by insulting him. He did just enough to technically address the questions asked of him and went ahead and let his freak flag fly. I, for one, don’t blame him.
Dave needs to stop being so lazy and figure out some real questions to ask. This “aw, shucks” flattery routine he does is not good interviewing. He has exactly two tricks: asskissing and insulting. His guests do the grand majority of the work for him. It’s time for that old dog to learn some new tricks.
