Joaquin Phoenix Gets Even Weirder

The former actor brought his hip hop shtick to a Miami night club where he jumped into the crowd and nearly fought a fan.

Acting a fool on Letterman’s “Late Show” wasn’t enough, now Joaquin Phoenix is taking his weird, scraggly bearded, hip-hop persona on tour.

The latest installment ended when security guards had to drag Phoenix out of his own hip-hop show---if you can call it that.

The former actor turned wacky rapper showed up nearly four-hours late to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach where hundreds of fans were waiting to hear his, um, lyrics. Phoenix came out on stage before 2 a.m., smoking a cigarette and wearing a disheveled dark suit, sneakers and his scraggly long hair and beard.

He began rapping to a beat played by the DJ and nodding to the music, although most of the lyrics were unintelligible. Then someone heckled him.

"We have a (double-expletive) in the audience," Phoenix muttered. Then he jumped into the bewildered crowd and charged after at the insulting party.

It was not immediately clear whether the two men exchanged any blows.

"I saw the guy screaming at Joaquin, and Joaquin just came down," said Jorge Lledo, 30, of Miami Beach.

Security guards swarmed the scene and dragged Phoenix back on stage and then out of the building.
 

Joaquin Phoenix attacks heckler at Miami Night Club. Warning: Explicit Language

This isn’t the first incident of strange behavior from the Oscar-winning actor. Last month he was on the “Late Show” with David Letterman giving one of the all-time worst interviews. During the segment he was distant, and answered Letterman's questions with grunts and one-word retorts.

Ben Stiller lampooned the scene during the Academy Awards.

The bizarre spectacle in Miami struck many in the audience as the latest prank in an extended farce staged by Phoenix. Casey Affleck, an Oscar-nominated actor who is also Phoenix's brother-in-law, is making a documentary about Phoenix's career shift.

"(Affleck's) camera was filming the whole time, so it makes me think he has ulterior motives," said Luis Gendron, 23, of Miami.

"He knows the game he's playing, and he's good at it," Gendron said of Phoenix.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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