Hiya
I've just read through this entire discussion and it's been something I've been thinking about a lot, as well. (Not just photos of Joaquin shirtless, ha ha!) But Joy, I agree with what you said that there was a change in Joaquin around the time of Walk the Line-I've read a lot of his interviews before that and he came across as quirky, and sweet, maybe even a little innocent, especially when he was younger...Naturally, everyone gets less innocent as they get older, but he definitely seemed, as you said, Joy, "harder" after Walk the Line. I noticed that, too.
When Joaquin was younger, he often seemed pretty sweet and his shyness was kind of endearing-one interviewer actually described him as "achingly polite!" But yeah, something changed-maybe he just got older, but it seemed more abrupt than that. He seemed to get quite a bit harder and definitely a bit more cynical. Maybe it's just to do with things that have happened to him personally, that have made him think more about Hollywood and its' effects?
Someone said Joaquin seemed more "unhappy" lately, and while I'm not sure I agree, I would say there's been a change in him. Maybe it's just life? Obviously, not knowing Joaquin personally, I can't say for sure. But yeah, he does seem to have more of a-almost more of a shell since Walk the Line. And to be sometimes, a little less happy.
When he first started out, James Gray said he sensed an "inner Beelzebub" in Joaquin. And maybe that side of him's got more pronounced as he's got older. Also, he's hounded a lot more by the media now than he used to be, partly because his profile has risen, but also because the media has developed so much in recent years. I mean, when Joaquin was in To Die For, which was 1995, there weren't nearly as many mobiles and the Internet wasn't nearly as popular. Nowadays, information is accessed so much more quickly, and celebrity gossip sells really fast. Joaquin himself has commented on this-he said that when River passed away, it was toward the end of an era and that had it happened today, it would have been all over the Internet and blogs. Which it probably would have been, sadly.
So maybe that's had an effect. I think he probably is required to do a certain number of photoshoots for publicity-it would probably be in his contract.
Joaquin said about what was going on in Venice, when some people complained about how he behaved at the press conference for the Master(can't believe that was nearly a year ago!) that he didn't mean to hurt people's feelings, and it wasn't intended to upset others. I don't think he does intend to offend others at all. I think he's just true to himself and how he feels. But something else he said (and I'm paraphrasing!) was that he didn't want to let himself get caught up in celebrity because he didn't want to start thinking of himself as something special and start thinking he was above other people. He said he knew that he was susceptible to thinking like that, and that that was one of the reasons he seemed to keep himself apart from it sometimes. Maybe that's another part of it-though I wouldn't describe Joaquin as thinking himself above anyone!
People have described him as reclusive before. Maybe it's a part of his personality-just enjoying acting for the acting, and hating the publicity side of it. When he did publicity for To Die For, Gus Van Sant said that Joaquin didn't relate to magazines or magazine ads at all, and he couldn't understand why people felt such a need for the media. (Again, paraphrasing.) Maybe it's just how fake some of the media feels that he dislikes? I'm just speculating.
What does everyone else think? And sorry for that extremely long post!
