Here's What Made Joaquin Phoenix Finally Stop Questioning The Absurdity Of Beau Is Afraid

You know Beau? Well, he's afraid. In an effort not to spoil you completely, that's all I can really say about Ari Aster's third film "Beau Is Afraid" — but outside of plot specifics, I can say that the film is wild, unexpected, cathartic, hilarious, horrifying, and all-around brilliant. It's a divisive movie, and certainly not one for the faint of heart, but its absurdity lies in its characters. That, among many other things, makes for a deliciously demented Freudian epic.

I recently attended a roundtable discussion with director Ari Aster and star Joaquin Phoenix for /Film, where a fellow attendee asked what kinds of conversations the pair had between takes about the character of Beau. Phoenix had a deeply insightful, as well as delightfully colorful, response about how he went on to craft this neurotic middle-aged man on a quest to visit his mother.

He explained, "Sometimes you have a script and it says, 'This is what the character does.' And then you start filming, and you go, 'But how? Why?' All these other questions come up. Like, 'Well, maybe that's what I say, but why am I not commenting on this thing that's happening five feet from me that would make anybody say, 'What the f*** is going on?”"

Phoenix added, "So that then leads you to the most important question, which was, what is the nature of this person? Who is he? What is their soul? And I think when we kind of discovered that, it all started to make sense, or I stopped questioning the absurdity of the world. Because [Beau] doesn't [question it]. He just kind of accepts the world as it is. That was difficult to get over, because you're on set, like, 'But how can I not be aware of it? Why am I not reacting to this?' So I felt like that was what was most important, was discovering who he was. Who was he when he was born?"

Getting to the heart of Beau's character is also paramount for the audience while watching "Beau Is Afraid." Much like Phoenix needed to get to know him at his core, viewers also spend a ton of time delving into the nooks and crannies of Beau's psyche—and without that? Well, the film certainly wouldn't land where Aster, or Phoenix for that matter, intends for it to land. The emotional catharsis wouldn't be there without an understanding between the audience and the film. In fact, those who have already shown a distaste for it probably didn't make that covenant with the movie. 

But in a way, the audience owes it to Aster and Phoenix to try their best to at best empathize and at worst sympathize with Beau over the course of the three-hour epic. After all, how else are we supposed to make sense of the absurd horror of Beau's existence? Maybe we should make like Phoenix and just embrace it. That works too. 

"Beau Is Afraid" goes wide in theaters in the United States on April 21, 2023.