There are very few actors in Hollywood today as dedicated to their craft as Joaquin Phoenix. In heavy roles such as Commodus in Gladiator, the tortured Batman villain in Joker, and possibly the most anxious man alive in Beau Is Afraid,

If you look up and revisit the list of names mentioned in the first paragraph, I think it’s fair to say that he is regularly successful in looking for filmmakers with unique vision. There are a lot of auteurs who have successfully made movies that are instantly identifiable via their special signatures and flairs.

Joaquin Phoenix memorably appeared on 'The Late Show' to speak with David Letterman in 2009 while in character for a 2010 mockumentary he and Casey Affleck made

On Tuesday night, the star said that he originally did the pre-interview in character and “I realized that it was just a little silly, so I called them back and I said, ‘Listen, this is what I’m doing. I’m coming out here and I’m doing this whole thing.’”

Writer-director Ari Aster has refashioned himself from a maker of art-house horror films like “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” into a more overt social satirist with “Beau Is Afraid” and his latest film, “Eddington,” which opens this week.

While Joker was the first time that Phoenix has taken home an Oscar, he had been shortlisted three times for the high-honors award. One of the most impressive aspects of Phoenix's performance is his capacity to completely become a character to the extent that he merges with it completely—a trademark of method acting.

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You might need to lie down for a bit after “Eddington.” Preferably in a dark room with no screens and no talking. “Eddington,” Ari Aster’s latest nightmare vision, is sure to divide (along which lines,