Joaquin Phoenix Takes a Dive; Career and All

Joaquin Walks the Line and Takes a Fall.

Joaquin Phoenix's new look Photo: exclaim.ca

(SALEM, Ore.) - Last week, The Rolling Stone reported that Joaquin Phoenix was making his move from actor to rapper official. He announced that he would mark the event with a performance at a Las Vegas club.

The video below attests to what this looks like, and sounds like, and it isn't good.

The Rolling Stone suggested that the performance was nothing short of a train wreck, with Phoenix struggling to even put sentences together during this official debut.

Making matters all the worse, Phoenix fell off the stage at the conclusion of his one-song set.

"The whole ordeal is being filmed for an upcoming and inevitably hilarious documentary," the magazine reported.

Wikipedia says Joaquin Rafael Phoenix was born October 28th 1974, and was formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix. He is an American-Puerto Rican film actor turned musician.

He is from a family of performers and is the younger brother of the late actor River Phoenix.

Joaquin Phoenix came back into public view under tragic circumstances: on October 31st 1993, after his brother suffered a fatal drug overdose and died, outside the famed Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room, which was owned by Johnny Depp.

Joaquin's call to 911 to save his brother was recorded and repeatedly played over the airwaves and on television.

The sudden media intrusion into his life proved to be too overwhelming; once again, he retreated from the public eye. A year later, at the insistence of his friends, Joaquin reluctantly re-entered the world of acting, which he has now left again.

Twentyfourbit.com made this statement about Phoenix and his new direction, "Joaquin Phoenix’s new rap character is the Bermuda Triangle between Borat, Tony Clifton, and Charles Manson. Or maybe Zach Galifianakis. There’s too many to choose from and that’s why Phoenix’s 'I’m quitting acting to play music' story is itself, undoubtedly, an act."

One Internet poster said, "What happened to this guy once one of the best actors alive...now looks be a drug addict hopefully he snaps out of it at some point."

Here is the video of his performance, and then he falls off the stage:

Video

Joaquin Phoenix announces his retirement to Extra on the red carpet:

In strong contrast, here is a video of Joaquin posted to YouTube January 8th 2008 when he won Favorite Leading Man: