Page 42 - PROTAGONIST-120

of a quadriplegic alcoholic cartoonist); the dissolute and delicate brother, was already a star when he
prince Commodus, who in Gladiator kills his father died of an overdose at the very young age of twen -
to become emperor; Theodore, the lonely writer who ty-three, on the sidewalk outside a West Holly -
falls in love with the voice of a virtual assistant in wood club in 1993. The desperate voice that called
Her by Spike Jonze (where he met his fiancée, Roon - an ambulance was that of Joaquin; he vanished
ey Mara); or Doc Sportello, the hippie private inves - from the scene for one year, and it took many more
tigator in Inherent Vice by Paul Thomas Anderson, for him to escape from the clutches of alcoholism
who also cast him in The Master, a superlative para- and addiction.
ble about a sect resembling Scientology. Legend has it that he got so nervous that they had
Sects have played a key role in his life. to put pads under his armpits to absorb the sweat.
Joaquin was born in 1974 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has been a vegan since age three, when he saw
His parents were hippie missionaries of the Chil - some fishermen brutally killing their catch; he says
dren of God cult, who then became missionaries he goes to sleep in the early evening and wakes up
of the artistic potential of their children (Joaquin, at 4 am, because “there are too many things I enjoy
Summer, River, Rain, and Liberty). They escaped doing,” though he doesn’t want to say what they are.
from the sect, having changed surname from Bot - Is it true? True stars are unpredictable; he recently
tom to Phoenix in honor of a new life, and moved to walked out of an interview with the Telegraph, in a
Los Angeles. In Joaquin’s memories, his childhood fit of rage worthy of Arthur/Joker. He doesn’t like
transpired in a shoddy apartment, or at times with awards (“they’re bullshit”), and in his latest public
only the seats of a car as a bed. With his siblings he appearances he has shown up in a dusty black SUV;
performed on the street to raise money. His moth - who knows what happened to his electric yellow 1972
er’s faith in her children’s talent paid off when they Le Mans, which he once said was “a way to be incog -
caught the eye of a Hollywood agent, Iris Burton. nito and fuel-efficient,” adding: “this car brings out
The rest is history: River, the startlingly handsome the man in me.”

40 Portrait Protagonist