{"id":14441,"date":"2025-07-16T18:54:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14441\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T18:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:54:17","slug":"one-of-the-worst-nights-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14441\/","title":{"rendered":"‘One of the Worst Nights of My Life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joaquin Phoenix Finally Addresses Infamous David Letterman Interview: ‘One of the Worst Nights of My Life’<\/a> originally appeared on Parade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No matter how bad or uncomfortable a Late Show interview seems to be, there’s no way it surpasses the unwavering awkwardness of Joaquin Phoenix’s 2009 interview with David Letterman.<\/p>\n

Among the most talked-about incidents in late 2000s television, Phoenix famously chose to remain in character promoting the 2020 mockumentary, I’m Still Here, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself attempting to build a career as a fledgling rap artist.<\/p>\n

While I’m Still Here itself remains largely forgotten among contemporary audiences, most viewers continue to remember Phoenix making several real-world appearances immersed in his character from the film, including his notorious Late Show interview opposite then-host Dave Letterman.<\/p>\n

Over 15 years since his previous appearance on The Late Show, the 50-year-old Gladiator actor recently returned to the program, sharing his own experiences with host Stephen Colbert about his “uncomfortable” interview with Letterman.<\/p>\n

“When I came on this show with Dave, I originally did the pre-interview in character and I realized that it was just a little silly,” Phoenix said. “So I called them back and I said, \u2018Listen, this is what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m coming out here and I\u2019m doing this whole thing. And I just want Dave to like, lacerate me. I just want it to be really dangerous.'”<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the kind of intention \u2014 I just always wanted to get this reaction and see how I would respond to that,” the actor continued. “So it was beneficial for no one to know, except when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Colbert had a chance to respond, the Walk the Line actor promptly added, “It was horrible. It was so uncomfortable. I regret it, I’ll never do it again. I’m so sorry.”<\/p>\n

Exploring the widespread media attention the interview later received, Phoenix went on to reflect, “It was strange because in some ways, it was a success, and it was also just one of the worst nights of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joaquin Phoenix Finally Addresses Infamous David Letterman Interview: ‘One of the Worst Nights of My Life’<\/a> first appeared on Parade on Jul 16, 2025<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joaquin Phoenix Finally Addresses Infamous David Letterman Interview: ‘One of the Worst Nights of My Life’ originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[13724,88,13725,13850,10674,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-14441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-david-letterman","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-joaquin-phoenix","11":"tag-late-show","12":"tag-stephen-colbert","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}