Famous Vegetarians

Each edition, European Vegetarian puts the spotlight on the career of a famous vegetarian. This issue: Joaquin Phoenix.


The viewer ratings of the 2006 Oscar’s were somewhat disappointing when compared to the previous years. Reason for that was the absence of huge blockbuster movies (think Titanic or Lord of the Rings) which seemed to have been replaced by less mainstream, more difficult so-called "message" films. There was also a distinct lack of “golden boys” amongst the nominees for best actor. No Leonardo di Caprio or Tom Cruise this year but people like Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Strathairn and the man who doesn’t hide the fact that he hates talking to the press, Joaquin Phoenix.

Joaquin first won notice for his role in Gus Van Sant’s satire “To Die For”. Despite lacking the good looks of his older brother River Phoenix, his portrayal opposite Nicole Kidman of a lower-class teen secuded into murder was both poignant and intense. He had acted before but all his credits prior to "To Die For" are as Leaf Phoenix, the name he'd adopted because people kept mispronouncing "Wah-keen". The film came after a break from acting, following the death of his brother River. Joaquin was with him when he died of a drug overdose at Johnny Depp’s nightclub The Viper Room.

Born in Puerto Rico in 1974 - his parents were missionaries – he was about 6 when the whole family settled in Los Angeles. Joaquin became vegan at the age of three-and-a-half and vividly remembers the incident that made him change his mind about eating meat. “My family and I were on a boat, catching fish. As one fish was caught, he was writhing, then he was thrown against the side of the boat. You couldn’t disguise what it was: this was what we did to animals to eat them. The animal went from a living, vibrant creature fighting for life to a violent death”. It was to be the start of the entire Phoenix family's conversion to veganism.

Continuing his slow rise into definite stardom, Joaquin almost outplayed Russell Crowe with his portrayal of troubled Roman emperor Commodus in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” which earned him a supporting-actor Oscar nomination. The film went on to win five Oscars in 2001, including best picture. A year later he appeared with Mel Gibson in the thriller "Signs" and reunited with the film’s director, M. Night Shyamalan as a full-fledged leading man in “The Village”. Not one to back away from difficult films, he earned high praise for his performance in the 2004 flick "Hotel Rwanda" in which he plays a cynical journalist witnessing the horrific genocide of 1994. He’s not much of a career planner, claiming that "..for me, honestly — and sorry to sound cliché —it’s just following your heart. I find that at the end of a film, I rarely know what I’m going to do next. I’m not one of those actors that has four movies lined up. I just suddenly have a feeling, something that I would like to try.”

High praise and some of the best reviews of his career and another Oscar nomination - this time for best actor - followed his portrayal of musical legend Johnny Cash in the film “Walk the Line”. Unlike Jamie Foxx in the biopic Ray the year before, Phoenix actually sings Cash's songs himself and pulls off a magnificent performance. Reese Witherspoon, who plays June Carter to his Johnny Cash, claimed in an interview that she was so impressed with his performance that she realised she had to “step it up a notch”. Phoenix convincingly copies Cash’ singing voice and movements. One thing, however, he refused to adopt: the Man in Black’s leather cowboy boots. During the shoot, he didn't want to wear anything that wasn't approved by PETA. Decisions like this haven't always been easy for the actor, who recalls one of his rare modelling gigs for Prada. "When I did the Prada campaign," he says, "the stylist wore the shoes. They did a separate shot of the shoes and it wasn't me. You know, it's kind of ridiculous because who the hell's going to know that?" He bears no ill-will to Prada footwear however. "They make nice shoes. I tried to get them to make a vegetarian shoe, but no."

Prada’s refusal, surely, couldn’t have had anything to do with Joaquin not being convincing enough. After all, he was the one who persuaded his former girlfriend of three years, the actress Liv Tyler, to become a vegetarian after the two met on the set of "Inventing the Abbotts".