At 77 years young, Paul Schrader is really in a considerable renaissance period. He was undoubtedly in the wild and lost in the woods there for a few years, but he returned to his “Taxi Driver” roots and a style of minimalism he always professed to love but never actually attempted with “First Reformed” (2017), which paid off with huge dividends. Every film he’s directed since “The Card Counter” and “Master Gardener” has shown a filmmaker totally rejuvenated in his old age. He’s also got a Facebook account and a newfound DGAF attitude that makes him great but controversial in interviews.
Schrader tends to casually rip into people in conversation, candidly, and in a recent interview with French outlet La Monde, he did the same, seemingly dissing Joaquin Phoenix, Leonardo DiCaprio, and his longtime buddy Martin Scorsese all in a matter of minutes. The conversation turned to Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” and whether Schrader was surprised to see an American play the famous French emperor and military commander. For some reason, this was basically a tee-up for Schrader to lay into Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix.
“First of all, it’s a casting problem,” he began frankly. “Joaquin Phoenix is the least charismatic actor there is. How could such a bland man accomplish so many military exploits? We don’t believe it for a second.”
Schrader might be on a roll and scoring great casting in actors like Ethan Hawke, Joel Edgerton, and Oscar Isaac, but maybe we can scratch off Phoenix on any potential lists for this needless attack.
In one of Schrader’s roundabout tangents, he said he was deeply looking forward to Francis Ford Coppola’s next film, but then eventually would his way towards insulting DiCaprio, Scorsese, and their latest acclaimed drama, “Killers Of The Flower Moon.”
“Francis Ford Coppola has always loved big toys; it’s his thing,” he began. “He sold his vineyards to film ‘Megalopolis,’ I can’t wait to see that. The excess of means must serve a very specific purpose. For ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969), Sam Peckinpah needed four or five months of filming. It was justified: he was filming nothing less than the death of the Western!”
Then he turned his attention to his buddy Scorsese, who has served as a collaborator and producer on many of his recent films.
Of course, it’s mostly said in loving affection, and everyone these days probably overlooks Schrader’s super blunt comments as the musings of an aged man who just has no filter and lets it go. Still, he is also self-aware about it too and has noted before when A24 asked him to get off social media during the promotional tour for “First Reformed.” And also, why? Why not just save these no-filter attacks for conversations that aren’t public and with journalists? Maybe he honestly just doesn’t give a f*ck. Schrader’s next film is “Oh Canada” starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi and is on our list of the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2024 (it could be ready by year’s end).
