Beau Is Afraid Star Describes Mistaking Joaquin Phoenix For a Handyman On Set

Ari Aster’s new ‘surrealist black comedy horror film’ Beau Is Afraid is already making some big waves of controversy, which is not a surprise, given that we’re talking about the director of polarizing horror films Hereditary and Midsommar. The trailer for Beau Is Afraid makes it clear that Aster is putting star Joaquin Phoenix through the full paces of a challenging performance; Phoenix plays the titular Beau, a man suffering from anxiety as he makes his way home after getting the news his mother has died. 

Aster has a stacked cast of talent alongside Joaquin Phoenix – including Parker Posey, who plays Elaine, a woman with deep connections to Beau. Posey sat down to talk with ComicBook.com about the experience of making Beau Is Afraid – including the surreal experience of when she first saw Joaquin Phoenix on set during filming, mistaking him for a handyman! 

“When I first saw Joaquin, I thought he was fixing the trailer. And he walked in the hair and makeup trailer, and he was wearing this khaki … He was wearing his costume from when he’d been running around. So we had all this blood and these bruises and stuff and I just really felt for him… Like, ‘Oh wow, he’s really … He’s going through a lot.’ And then I saw that it was Joaquin. Because he shaved part of his head.”

In a different part of the interview, Posey reveals that she was on set near the end of Aster’s time shooting Beau is Afraid – ergo, she was definitely coming in at a time when Joaquin Phoenix had already been through some pretty big acting challenges, both physically and dramatically. As Posey describes it, Beau Is Afraid was filmed almost like a live stage show, in the way it challenged Joaquin Phoenix to move and play out the elaborate sequences that are the most buzzworthy aspect of this film: 

“It [the movie] was so overwrought… I’m like, ‘This could be on opera. This could be on stage.’ It’s so drawn in this grand way, yet it’s also very archetypal and textured and real. And when we rehearsed he [Joaquin] was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do it.’ And then he would start putting on the physicality of it, and he was like, ‘Ugh.’ Because it’s a lot.”

If nothing else, it sounds like the grueling physical challenges made the dramatic character acting much more real.

The synopsis for Beau Is Afraid reads: “Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.”

Beau Is Afraid will be in theaters on April 21st.