NEW YORK (AP) - Even though Joaquin Phoenix co-stars in the alien thriller "Signs," it didn't stop him from getting caught up in the suspense when he saw it in the theater.
"It's kind of embarrassing, but I did jump a few times," he admitted to reporters. "I was pretty scared. And I laughed, I think Mel (Gibson) is so funny.
"You work on a film, and you see 20 takes," he continued. "When it's all put together, it's all flowing, there's a continuity. And if it's done right, you get just as swept away as anyone else."
As for aliens, the dog in "Signs" treated Phoenix like an otherworldly figure. The dog was trained to bark and be scared whenever the aliens were in the corn field. Phoenix got along great with the dog and when it came time to film a scene with it, the first take went very well. That prompted director M. Night Shyamalan to tell Phoenix that he was great with animals.
"We did the first take and everything was splendid," Phoenix said. "And Night said to me, 'Wow! you're really great with animals.' And I'm really superstitious. And I said, 'No! You jinxed it. Don't say that.'"
Phoenix says child actors Abigail Breslin and Rory Culkin were so good in the emotional dinner scene, he didn't want to have to follow them.
"She's just sitting there wanting to do thumb wars and stuff," Phoenix explained, "and there's action! And all of sudden, she just bursts out with tears. She's crying. Everyone is completely in shock. We cut, and it's real quiet. And everyone starts applauding. And (we) moved around to Rory. (And he) did the same thing, it was amazing. And I was up next, and I really didn't want to go."
"Signs" ran crop circles around the competition to top an unusually strong weekend box office for August. The film, starring Gibson as a farmer who finds mysterious patterns marking his fields, raked in $60.3 million.
Another article
Joaquin Phoenix is a 'fraidy cat. The Oscar nominee ("Gladiator"), currently starring with Mel Gibson in last weekend's No. 1 movie at the box office, director M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs," confesses to having been frightened by the flick when he finally saw it at a screening. "It's kind of embarrassing, but I did jump a few times," Phoenix, 27, told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "I was pretty scared. And I laughed, I think Mel is so funny. " As for how a project that he had been with for so long could still take him by surprise, he said: "You work on a film, and you see 20 takes. When it's all put together, it's all flowing, there's a continuity. And if it's done right, you get just as swept away as anyone else." He also revealed that the dog in the movie, who reacted with fright every time the aliens were in the cornfield, was trained to bark on cue and behave scared. "We did the first take and everything was splendid," Phoenix said. "And Night said to me, 'Wow! You're really great with animals.' And I'm really superstitious. And I said, 'No! You jinxed it. Don't say that.'" No comment from the dog.