Joaquin Phoenix went on David Letterman last night for the first time since his disheveled mumbling appearance in February, 2009. A clean-shaved and initially arrogant-looking Phoenix explained that he cooked up the scheme with Casey Affleck to stage a public breakdown and film it as “we wanted to do a film that explored celebrity and explored the relationship between the media and the consumers and the celebrities themselves.” Letterman wanted to make it clear that he had no idea that it was a stunt when Joaquin was on the last time. Joaquin offered a half-assed apology while maintaining that Letterman should have known something was up. “You’ve interviewed many many people and I assume that you would kind of know the difference between a character and a real person, but I apologize. I hope I didn’t offend you in any way.”

Dave then ribbed Joaquin about the fact that they used a full five minutes from his disastrous interview with him in the film without licensing it at all. He said his lawyers contacted the lawyers for the film and were told that it was “fair use” as it was a documentary. Now that it’s known that the film isn’t a documentary, “you owe me a million dollars,” Dave quipped. He seemed genuinely annoyed that Joaquin duped him and got so much publicity and footage out of it. Joaquin said “We’ll work it out, but can we talk about it privately?”

“We’ll go to one of your screenings,” Dave deadpanned.

I got the feeling that Joaquin was eating crow in an attempt to sell the film, but that his heart just wasn’t in it. Casey admitted a few days ago that the movie was a hoax and that he went broke personally financing it. It’s been a royal flop and has only taken in $259,000 since it was released two weeks ago, and now these two must be desperate. Maybe Dave let Joaquin on again so the film could earn enough money to pay him the licensing fees he thinks he’s owed. Fat chance with that.

Casey Affleck was on Leno earlier this week and he admitted that “neither Joaquin or I talked to Dave” ahead of that interview in February. He said “I told [Paul] Schaffer, but he’s not going to tell anybody.” He also said that no one called to ask how Joaquin was doing back when many people assumed his “Bye Good” act was legitimate. “You know, I never got calls. It’s weird… afterward, the movie comes out, the critics like to say ‘this is crazy, this is disturbing, this is sick.’ But while it’s happening, people were happy just to mock him and make fun of him.” It’s not like Casey was bitching about it, though, as Leno asked him specifically if anyone was concerned back when we thought Joaquin was crazy.

Casey said that he truly thought that everyone who watched the movie would realize that it was a put on by the end. It looks like no one is seeing it, hence the confusion.

Here’s Casey’s interview with Leno. In the second video below there’s a clip from the film at the point when there’s 1:00 left. Diddy seems so nice to me.

Joaquin on 2/11/09 and 3/8/10. Credit: Fame Pictures