Joaquin Phoenix has a warning for those planning to experience his latest film, Beau Is Afraid.
During an interview with Fandango, published online Friday, the Joker star advised people to not take mushrooms before going to see the Ari Aster-directed film.
“I was told from someone in college that there was this college thread amongst friends, a challenge they were going to take mushrooms and go see this movie,” he explained. “And I just wanted to make a public service announcement and say, do not take mushrooms and go see this fucking movie.”
He then jokingly added, “But if you do it, film yourself. But don’t do it!”
The Her actor did recommend filmgoers to see the film in IMAX if they can, because “That’s the way to fucking see it!”
He recalled the first time he watched Beau Is Afraid with an audience, saying, “I was definitely squirming in my seat. First of all, I’m just laughing about the entire fucking movie. There’s a couple of sequences where I’m just squirming – I mean, stuff that [Aster] did with the sound design, it was really great. It’s such a rich world, and there’s so many details to see in it. It is a hundred percent a movie that you feel. There’s so many rich, complex themes in this film, but it’s such a visceral experience to watch it. Then you leave, and when that feeling subsides, you start thinking about it.”
Phoenix stars as Beau Wassermann, a paranoid man who confronts his darkest fears and embarks on an epic odyssey to get back home following his mother’s sudden death, in the A24 film, which The Hollywood Reporter described in its review as a “pitch-dark existential horror comedy about an emotional wreck on a painfully conflicted journey home.”
Beau Is Afraid is currently airing in theaters.