Never one to miss an opportunity to throw down a hot battle rap, Joaquin Phoenix has sparked a preemptive beef with the Academy over his presumed Oscar chances for The Master, telling Elvis Mitchell in Interview that he's not at all interested in playing their little awards-season circuit game. Also, he has some harsh words for carrots:
"I'm just saying that I think it's bullshit. I think it's total, utter bullshit, and I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other … It's the stupidest thing in the whole world. It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when Walk the Line was going through all the awards stuff and all that. I never want to have that experience again. I don't know how to explain it—and it's not like I'm in this place where I think I'm just above it — but I just don't ever want to get comfortable with that part of things."
Whether the Academy will somehow take offense at this shunning and deny him a nomination—or Harvey Weinstein tries to force-feed him his Oscar carrots using the old, "Here comes the airplane…" trick—remains to be seen, of course, but this is certainly a slap in the face of carrots. Also, you should definitely read the whole interview, wherein Phoenix insists that all white people go see Jumping The Broom, calls himself Paul Thomas Anderson's "pet monkey," and sums up his performance in The Master thusly: "It's like in the scene where homie starts talking about wrestling a dragon. As soon as I realized that I was the dragon, it was much easier." Eat your carrots, rapping monkey-dragon. [via The Playlist]