{"id":130910,"date":"2025-08-23T08:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T12:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=130910"},"modified":"2025-08-22T08:06:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:06:04","slug":"happy-birthday-river-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=130910","title":{"rendered":"“I try to lie as much as I can when I’m interviewed. It’s reverse psychology. I figure if you lie, they’ll print the truth.” — River Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s his birthday today.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nJust as I will never get over Kurt Cobain’s death, and will never stop missing him and wondering what he would be doing now, I will never get over River Phoenix’s death. Losing the two of them in the space of six months was a mile-marker for my generation. I will never stop missing both of them. I will never stop wondering “What would River Phoenix be doing now? What kind of roles would he get? What kind of middle-aged actor would he have grown into?” <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nOne of the most popular and well-trafficked post in the history of my site – people are still finding it, still leaving comments – is the conversation Matt Seitz and I had about Dogfight<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nDan Callahan is eloquent on River Phoenix in his book The Art of American Screen Acting, vol. 2<\/i>, and we discussed it when I interviewed him.<\/a><\/p>\n

Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix, 1991, for Interview<\/i> magazine:<\/i><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nFrom interview with the two actors in Interview<\/i> magazine, 1991: <\/p>\n

KR:<\/b> Um, who knows? I really would like to do Shakespeare with River. I think we’d have a hoot. We could do A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em> or Romeo and Juliet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

RP:<\/b> I’ll be Juliet.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s his birthday today. Just as I will never get over Kurt Cobain’s death, and will never stop missing him and wondering what he would be doing now, I will never get over River Phoenix’s death. Losing the two of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,4,39],"tags":[2080],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130910"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193907,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130910\/revisions\/193907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}