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From Variety and iHeart Podcasts, this is season two of Variety Confidential.
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This season on Variety Confidential, we peel back the layers of actor River Phoenix's meteoric rise to fame, from his unconventional childhood to becoming the alternative poster boy of a generation. We'll explore his powerful performances in classics like stand By Me and My Own Private Idaho, You're.
Never going to get out of this town now, my boy.
Examining how his raw talent and undeniable charisma left an indelible mark on the film industry.
You guys were ussia dead body. A find a normal family and a good upbringing, and I would have been so well adjusted person.
Depends on what you call normal. I'm Tachiana Siegel, Executive editor of Film and Media at Variety, and I'm here to take you through the extraordinary life of one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars, River Phoenix. His is a name that still resonates with cinophiles and casual moviegoers alike. Nearly three decades after his untimely passing. But River's story isn't just about the bright lights of Hollywood. It's a tale of youthful ambition, artistic integrity, and the dark side of fame.
Exclusive interviews with Rivers co stars and friends, including Corey Feldman and Samantha Mathis, will shed light on who River really was off camera. Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering his war, join us as we speak with industry insiders and Varieties experts to explore the brilliance and complexity of River Phoenix. Let's dive into the life, legacy, and lasting impact of an actor who burned bright and
left us far too soon. This is Variety Confidential, the life and legend of River Phoenix.
In fact, I would rather quit while I was ahead. Yeah, there's no need overstanding. You're welcome.
River Phoenix was born on August twenty third, nineteen seventy, into a family that embraced an unconventional lifestyle. His parents, Arlen and John Bottom, were deeply ameshed in counterculture of the nineteen sixties and lived mostly on the road with their five children, River the eldest, followed by Rain, Joaquin Liberty and Summer. When he was a young boy, River's parents became missionaries for the religious cult Children of God,
also known as the Family. John and Arland's work took them to South America, but they eventually became disillusioned with the group and relocated the family to Florida. There, they adopted a new surname, Phoenix, a symbol of rebirth. By all accounts, it was a nurturing, if unusual environment. River and his siblings never had a formal education, but their parents' bohemian lifestyle allowed the children to explore any creativity or
self expression to its fullest extent. They showed an aptitude for acting in music, and at times busk to help bring in money for the family.
Well, in my family, throughout the years, we've been moving frequently, whether it be for financial reasons or for different movies that we were working on. So I've been very used to that spontaneous, must pick it up and move on kind of thing.
River's brother, actor Joaquin Phoenix, recently detailed their upbringing and sibling dynamic on comedian Theo Vaughn's podcast this past weekend with Theo Vaughn, Why was.
The second son uh? And uh, and my brother was like quite a force and was definitely like I don't know, almost like mythical or Shakespearean or you know, maybe it's because he he died or something, but he's like, you know, he was like the first son and he was and he was he was incredible, and he was such a force within our family. It was kind of like the the the the guiding light in some ways. He's one of the acted first and we used to sing on the streets and he played guitar and kind of like
over singer. He was the lead singer and he was the guitarist and kind of oversaw everybody. And he was such a like a strong but gentle force within the family.
This upbringing not only shaped rivers worldview, but also ignited his artistic passions early on, laying the groundwork for his future career in Hollywood. His breakthrough came in nineteen eighty five with the TV movie Surviving a Family and Crisis, which showcased his talent to a broader audience, but it was nineteen eighty six's Stand By Me that catapulted him into the spotlight, establishing him as a household name in
Variety's Oral history of the movie. Director Rob Reiner says it was Phoenix's star power that helped the movie find distribution. As he tells it, nearly every studio in Hollywood had passed on the Coming of Age film when they convinced New Columbia Pictures production head Guy McElwain to screen it. But the most crucial members of the audience were mcelwain's two daughters. About halfway through, they were in love with
River Phoenix. Bruce A. Evans, who produced and co wrote the film, remembers in the film, fourteen year old River is a standout as spiritual leader Chris Chambers, alongside co stars Corey Feldman as hot tempered Teddy Duchamp, Will Wheaton as sensitive Gordie la Chance, and Jerry O'Connell as wisecracking Verne Tessio. It's been decades since, but Corey Feldman says he still cherishes those memories on the stand by Me set with River, whom he called one of the great iconic actors of our time.
I would say River was like the James Dean of our generation. You know, he had all that prospect, he had all that potential. Everybody knew that he was going to be an Academy Award winner.
Everybody knew that he was going to be.
Hailed as one of the great iconic actors of our time, and we knew it at that time.
We knew it.
I just assumed he would always be part of my life, and I always assumed we'd have many more times to work together. I figured we'd end up doing music together. I figured we do more films together. To me, it was a very open ended relationship that had only started to bud. And that was that was the hardest gut punch of the whole thing, was knowing that my friend was gone and that wasn't going to happen again, and there was no opportunity for us to ever create together
and to stand together. I mean to think about what I've stood for in my life and the things that he wanted to stand for or was standing for at the time of his loss, and to think what magic we could have stirred up together, the powerful statements, the powerful moments, the things that we could have raised awareness on if we joined forces and work together as adults, you know, And that's the tragedy to me is just you know, like, wow, We'll never have that chance to
see what might have become of it.
Corey, take us back to when you were cast and stand By Me. What do you remember from that time. I'm filming in the summer of nineteen eighty five.
Well, what I remember about being cast in stand By Me was going into the audition while I was working on the ADR for Goonies. Actually we were on the sound stages. We did about I think it was like sixty days worth of ADR on Goonies.
It was a lot.
We were there for like two months. We had our school trailers out in the parking line, all that stuff. So I got an audition to read for a Rob Ryanan movie called The Body, and that's what it was called when I went into audition for it, and I remember it was a pretty big call. There was a lot of kids in the room, and I remember Rob asking me to come in two or three times to try different.
Things and all in the same day.
But I mean like going back and forth and trying different things, working with the character a little.
Bit, and that was it.
I mean, it was a pretty simple process. After I think there was a callback. I think there was like two calls and that was it. And then we got the offer.
So when you guys would see each other at casting or whatever, were you often going up for the same roles.
But it was movies like Explorers where you know, I was promised a role. I originally was reading for River's role. River got the role. Then I ended up reading for the part that Jason Present ended up playing, which I believe I got and was going to me, and then I got Goonies and had to turn it down. So there was a lot of that kind of stuff, you know, And that was it was that way always with me and River, and it was also that way with me
and Corey Haim. So a lot of people don't realize that, and I was one of those people, by the way that didn't realize it. But Corey would tell me, I actually met you before Laws Boys, and I was like, how, And he said, on the audition for Goonies, when I went into amblin, you were actually sitting in the waiting room. And when I saw that you were going in for the same character as me, I knew that I was in trouble because I knew that you already had a
relationship with Steven and blah blah blah. So that was kind of one of those interesting things. So Corey was one of them. But you know, I didn't see him as much as he was from Canada, but River and I saw each other on everything. And again Explorers, you know, was another movie that he ended up getting.
I ended up getting it too. We could have ended up in that together.
But then because I got the opera, like I think, the same week as Goonies, I couldn't do it.
Yeah, so there you go.
Okay, what was the vibe like on set?
Oh, it's amazing.
I mean it was. First of all, the thing that was great about that film was the fact that you had, you know, four serious actors, even though we were kids, we all took our craft seriously, and you had a very serious.
Director who had something to prove. You know. This was not the Rob Reiner that we think of no of today.
This was the guy who really had a chip on his shoulder because people kept calling him Meatball and he did not want to be remembered or referred to as the meatball.
It was like, yeah, that was cute.
That was a sitcom I did back in the seventies and you know, early eighties.
But I'm done with that now. And now I'm a director and I want.
To be taken and seeing, and so because of that, I think that's what kind of got me excited about the prospect when I read the stuff that I read from the body and said, Okay, this, this will be serious. This is not like you know, the other stuff that I've done before, where it's action adventure or comedy or horror. I mean, this is like really serious stuff. So we all got to put our serious faces on and go
for it. And so when we got up there, the beautiful experience was that rob knowing that we were a bunch of kids who did have the intention to be serious, but at the same time probably came from a myriad of backgrounds regarding our instincts, regarding what we were used to.
If you know, some of us were trained and had class, some of us did not, like myself, who never went to class, never had a coach, And so some of the things that he wanted to do was kind of broaden our horizons by introducing us to tricks and games and things that were used in acting schools, in acting classes and stuff that I personally had never experienced because
I'd never been to those things. And so we did a series of things that he called traditional you know exercises, which were exercises from you know, stell Adler or whatever, where we would do things like mirroring or volume games where we would you know, mirror each other's movements or mirror each other's volume, where we would you know, somebody would say something and then we would repeat it back to them at a louder level, and then they would
repeat it back at a louder level. Things like that, just working off of each other to gain each other's sensibilities, understand each other's timing and thought process. And then we'd play other games, like you know, kind of fun imagination games or improvisation games, different things, just to get our brains working and to get us communicating in a way that felt like we've known each other for a.
Lot longer than we had.
And with River and I, it was really easy because River and I had known each other for many years already. We'd been seeing each other in different casting offices, you know, playing football in the parking lot, link be in the
parking lot. You know, that's the kind of stuff that you did if you got along with another kid in the industry, because generally you'd walk into these casting offices and they'd be I mean, I'm sure it's still like this, but you know, there was fifty kids in there, and they're all with their stage moms, and all their stage moms have told their kids not to talk to other kids. That's like a big thing. And for whatever reason, River and I were both always those kids. Like we'd see
each other, hey man, how are you good? Good, what's going on? Let's go outside and talk. Okay, when we go outside and just start hanging, you know, and have fun like kids do until it was time to get called. And I guess, you know, even though we both did have stage moms, for whatever reason, I guess they didn't mind us hanging out because they knew that we were probably the best of the best, and it was probably a good idea for us to have a connection or whatever.
But the point is is that, you know, it wasn't frowned upon for us to have that relationship, so we kind of built.
It, you know. And I wouldn't say we were great friends. I would just say we were acquaintances.
But we always kind of had a smile and a fondness for when we saw each other and when we realized that we were casting the movie together.
We were both very excited about that.
Is there an early memory from production that still stands out to you.
I'll never forget the plane ride over, which was one of the scariest plane rides of my life. And I'll never forget that because River and I were sitting next to each other on a small single engine prop lane and you know, it's like a puddle jumper, and we hit some really serious turbulence on the way over, and I'll never forget River and I sitting there fearing for our lives, like scared to death, but laughing at the
same time because the plane was going like this. It was rocking so hard that at one point it went all the way up on its side. So we're like, whoof, like that all the way up on its side, and I remember almost going upside down and I'm like kind of He's sitting next to me and I'm looking down and I'm like, oh my god, are we going to die? And we shared that experience of like a near death experience together, and that's how we started off our journey
for a Stand by Me. So I've never told that story, but it's an interest one and what.
Do you remember about River as an actor?
You know, most young actors, you look at them and they don't respond, or if they do respond, they're just reading words off the page, but there's no connection there. That's the testament of a great actor, and especially at a young age, is somebody that's not working off the written page, but they're working off the emotion that those words make them feel. Whether it's comedy or serious or horror,
it doesn't matter. It's still the same value, which is being real in the moment and giving that real moment to your fellow actors to get them the opportunity to share in that real moment with you.
So, yeah, that was the kinship.
I believe that we had that kind of put us above the other guys, not in the sense of actors, just in the sense of we had that understanding.
It was a mutual understanding.
And then will you know, I think it was kind of more from the other side of the training, which was very kind of stick to the words on the page.
You know, do what's in front of you. You know, don't kind of do anything.
Outside of the box unless you're told where River and I were much more like go on the feeling go on the feeling and then Jerry being so young, he was just kind of like, you know, this was his first project where him it was like the opposite side of the spectrum where he was just like you know, a bird being let out of the cage for the first time and just kind of like.
Hey, this is great, this is fun. Let's go everywhere, you know, let's do anything. Let's yeah, this is awesome. And he was. He brought that to his character, and he brought that to the scenes, and all that innocence and that sweetness that's in his character I think was very genuine to Jerry and who he was.
What was like the vibe like when cameras aren't rolling, he seems like almost like summer camp, like you guys are all the same age or were not the same age and.
Had to do a lot of fun.
It was amazing until River had his family upheaved him from the hotel and moved them all to a house outside of town. So when we were all staying in the same hotel, it was a blast. We were having an amazing time. It was maybe a little bit too much fun. But when his family, his Mam Marlene, decided that they wanted to rent a little, you know, family ranch home outside in the suburbs, which was about forty minutes away from city.
You know.
Obviously I would go out there and stay with them sometimes, or River would come stay in my hotel room with me sometimes. But for the most part, it created the separation between us, which was kind of depressing because we were really excited and enjoying that camaraderie and enjoying that kind of summer camp vibe, which of course you still got on the set, but it was a little bit different because you're working.
So but we had some great times.
I mean, that was the first nightclub I ever went to in my life, was with River, and it was an under eighteen, like an age fifteen to eighteen type nightclub. And I don't even know how. I guess it was all ages because we were not that old. We were only thirteen. I don't know how we got into that place,
but they were letting us in. So we went to our first night club for kids, and it was all, you know, like I said, thirteen to eighteen year olds, you know, dancing to depeche Mode and all the goth type eighties music that was out there, and I'd come in and River and I would have little Michael Jackson dance offs. People don't realize this, but River could also dance and he liked to dance like Michael also, although it was never seen on camera, but he would do it.
And we would go to this nightclub called the Met that was the name of the club. Actually just ran into somebody at the comic con that I did last weekend who was like, Oh, I remember you from Eugene, Oregon. I don't know if you know this, but I went to that nightclub with you. I said, what was it called. They said it was the Met. I was like, that's right, so that's what I have that information fresh on me. But yeah, So we would go to that nightclub together.
You know, we famously got drunk together. I think it was my first time being drunk, I'm not sure about his. And then we also famously smoked weed together for the first time, which is really weird, but that was on set offset of the movie. We didn't do it on set obviously while we were working, but it was through people that were associated with the set, and that's how we ended up getting the weed in the first place.
So basically one of the crew members brought us to his room and smoked us out, And of course that was not you know, that's typely right. We shouldn't be doing that, but they did anyway. So but you know, it was all in good fun. I mean, I wouldn't say that they were trying to, you know, taint the clean perception of a young adolescent. But we came to him.
It's not like he was pushing it on us. We were saying, you know, all these kids are smoking weed in town and they keep talking to us about it, and we don't want to just you know, run off with some kids. We'd rather do it with an adult who knows what they're doing. And you know, maybe we saw that you have a bong in your room. You know, we were like hanging out with this guy on the crew and we saw a bong in his room in River said, you know, look he's got I was like, oh,
he's like, well, maybe we can ask him. So that's what it was about. But anyway, we did it. Rivers said he never felt it that day, by the way, so I got stoned out of my mind.
He never felt anything.
And then I think we tried again another time, and that time he did feel it. But and then I remember cut to like New York when we were doing the press tour and I was there with my dad.
And I remember going over the River's room.
And like I could smell weed coming all the way down the hallway. I was like, well, I guess he figured it out. But anyway, so.
Yeah, that was there, you go. That was it, at the.
End of innocence in the truest form, and that moment of crossing from you know, puberty, you know, being kids, being rambunctious, trying to understand the world and everything around us, and then experimenting with these things that we, you know, probably shouldn't have been. But I think it was pretty much on par with what every other kid our age.
Was doing at the time.
I mean, I don't think we were really doing anything that crazier out of control, and certainly we never did hard drugs together or anything like that.
Did he stay in touch after the film wrapped or after the press tour.
Yeah, we did.
We stayed friends for many years, you know, and then we kind of then we kind of stopped talking.
I think probably around sixteen to eighteen.
We didn't talk for a while, and then I saw him when I turned eighteen at the Academy Awards, and I remember it had been about two years and he was there with Martha Plimpton. I was there with Drew Barrymore. I was performing that year. He was nominated for Running on Empty and so I remember going and visiting him, like we would go to each other's sets, so like we'd both be working on the Warner Brothers lot. I think he was working on First No, No, No, before before Running on Empty.
There was that movie that he did, Jimmy Ruden. Was it Jimmy Ruden?
Yeah, might have been, But anyway, he was working on a movie on the lot on the Warner Brothers lot. I was working on I think Lost Boys, And we kind of hooked up there and out on each other's sets a little bit. And then the next time I saw him after that was the Academy Awards, and it was like, wow, look here we are. Now you're nominated. I'm performing, Like this is kind of a big deal. We've done well for ourselves.
Okay, let's go back to that night at the Shrine Auditorium in nineteen eighty nine for the Oscar Ceremony.
The nominates for the best actor in the supporting role.
Now like Dennis and Little Dog, Gentlemen, Kevin Klein in a Fish called wand Martin Landau in Tucker the Man and His Dreams, River Phoenix and running on empty.
Dean Stockworld in Marriage with them All and the Oscar goes to Kevin Klein and a Fish called wand Corey.
What happened next?
And then the very next contact was when I had gotten through rehab and I was nineteen, and I had just come out of rehab, and I was working on a movie that I'm not hugely proud of, but it was called Happy Campers, which was a broad kind of comedy, camp comedy whatever.
But anyway, point being that.
The first a d saw how serious I was trying to help people get sober, and she brought up to me that River was going through some of his own personal demons. And I don't want to get too into the details of that, but I'll say that when I heard that he was struggling with some of the same things that I had just recovered from, I obviously wanted
to help in any way I could. So I reached out to him a few times and we did speak, we did connect, and The plan was that when I got back from filming, we were going to get together. And my plan was that I was going to get him into twelve step recovery. And I was actually making a plan to do that, to do like an intervention. And then when I got back, I contacted him, never reached him. His guy, his name was Sky, who was with him actually the whole time of the filming of
the Standpy. I mean, he was his guardian, his onset guardian, his name was. They called him Sky Phoenix, and Sky and I are still very close friends today.
But Sky was the one that entered the phone that day and he.
Said, oh, Rivers not available, he's sleeping or whatever, and he never put him on the phone with me, and we never reconnected. And because we never reconnected, I never had the chance to get him into that twelve step recovery. And it was only about maybe a couple months after that that he that he oded. So it's a terrible piece of my history, and it's very sad.
You know.
It's one of those things that you know, you ask yourself over and over, could I have done more? You know, I wish, I wish I would have thought more. I wish I would have realized how serious it was and made more of an aggressive plan to you know, make myself present, to go, you know, pound on his door, drag him out. Whatever I had to do, I should have I should have done more, and I don't know if I'll ever really completely forgive myself for that.
Hmm.
It sounds like my own private Idaho was the film that really pushed him over the edge.
Yep, that's what he had. That's that's what the lady, her name was Chris Kringle. She had just worked with him on that film, and that's why I was getting the feedback what had happened on that set, and you know what kind of condition he was in, and that's why I was like, oh my god, I gotta do something. So I did emphatically try to reach him. Several times. We did connect, but briefly, and then by the time I got home, you know, people get distracted. I got,
you know, right into a next movie. He goes into his next you know how it is. It's just, you know, you go your different paths and then by the time you circle back sometimes it's too late.
And that's what happened.
What do you recall was your reaction when you heard the news that he had passed away.
Oh just awful, what loss. What a beautiful soul. I mean, we had so much in common. That's why I respected him. I mean not to sound self indulgent, but like, he was a vegetarian, he loved animals, he loved humans, he loved giving. He was a musician, he was, you know, an artist. He liked to dance, he liked to sing, he liked to quick. We made a music video together.
A lot of people don't know this, but him and his sister Rain did some very early recordings of some family songs, kind of like Partridge Family type stuff, and they asked me to star in the video because he liked the way I danced, and you know, he knew that I was trying to get into music. He was further advanced than I was, because I didn't start writing until probably after that. I think around stand by Me is when I started first putting pen to paper and trying to write music.
And it wasn't until really around Lost Boys that I.
Put together my first single in my first video, which was Rotten Away, which I never released even but I was kind of working on music at that time, so He had me probably by about a year or two, and when he was already working on his music and he would play it for me.
I was like, this is great, this is great. He's like, why do you start one of the videos. We want to make a video and I want you to start. I was like okay.
So he directed the video and it was me taking his little sister out on a date or something like that. It was really sweet and really cute. But you know, I show up with flowers and I knock on the door and the little girl comes to the door and we go up on this date holding hands.
And it was just the sweetest, was innocent little thing.
So yeah, I go back to those dimes, and I go back to those memories of why we were so connected and why we were so linked together spiritually because we were like the same we were cut from the same cloth, and I just had so much love and respect and admiration for him. So when I you know, when I turned on the news that night, and it was Halloween night, so I think i'd.
Been out as well, you know, and I came home and.
I just saw it and it was just it. I couldn't even believe it was real. You know, it was just it was horrifying, and yeah, it's just a huge laws.
To further discuss the cultural phenomenon that would stand By Me were turned to Variety is chief film critic Owen Gleiberman.
I think the movie that really put him on the map for me was stand By Me. You know, he had that kind of wolf cub look about him, and he already, you know, in hindsight, had the quality that would define him as an actor, which is that under this cool facade, there was this very tender and sincere quality. It's kind of effortless gravitas that he had. And in that sense, you know, he was a prototype in a way for a new generation of stars, a new paradigm
of Hollywood startup. You know, he'd started out as a teen star doing after school specials and things like that, and in a way that felt very ahead of the curve. He was sort of like Harry Styles or Robert Pattinson in that when he crossed over into an adult persona, he had to sort of fight for his credibility. But I think, you know, from stand by Me on you really saw that he just had this quality that stood out, this stillness about him that made you want to watch him,
where he could just effortlessly own a scene. Just about the highest compliment you can give a young actor is to say that he's a James Dean. Now, a million young actors have been compared to James Dean, and ninety nine percent of them do not live up to that. But River Phoenix really was a James Dean. And you start with that look. I mean, he was just very handsome with that dark blonde hair, but there was a
soul to him. He looked like a wolf, very wild and mysterious, and he had this quality of melancholy about him that always came through very glamorous but also vulnerable, haunted. But that gave him this intoxicating quality where he could be doing absolutely nothing and you wanted to watch me. And part of what was so James Dean like about River Phoenix is that he did seem to be nursing some buried, kind of far off ache, some kind of wound, and you wanted to get in touch with that. You
wanted to know what it was. You kind of wanted to take.
Care of him.
I think River Phoenix stood out in that movie by seeming more like a seventies actor. I think those kids were all pretty good in the movie, but you know, they were kind of punchy and a little bit sticky son of them, and he was. He was willing to kind of be laid back and not say anything and just you know, kind of command a scene through his presence. And I think that's the quality he carried through all
his roles. He often played these kind of quiet, introspective characters where he wasn't ruling a scene through dialogue, although he could do that too, and there was something it was more like just his presence. There was this quality he had that drew you to it. It was very nonverbal in a way, and I think that comes across and stand by me, that's what makes him the most magnetic of those four is that he's the one. He's the one of these boys who has kind of a quality of mystery about him.
With his new phone fame, River took on ambitious roles that further highlighted his talent. Films like The Mosquito Coast and Running on Empty earned him critical acclaim and solidified his status as a rise in star Let's Listen to this nineteen eighty eight interview from Toronto's CFTO News.
Phoenix has met with considerable success in his brief career, but doesn't consider himself an actor as much as a comedian.
To me, an actor is like a Shakespearean actor, and I just feel like I can blend well and can take on a character and somehow make it feel somewhat organic and spontaneous.
Yet with success came personal challenges. River struggled with the pressures of his newfound fame, the financial responsibility of being a breadwinner for his family, his tendency to throw his entire self into a role, and a complex personal life that included an on again, off again relationship with his Mosquito Coast and running on Empty coastar Martha Plumpton. He also began experimenting with drugs and alcohol during this time.
Martha recently spoke about River and their four year romance on her friend Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinners on Me podcast.
River was certainly more famous than I ever was. I mean, he got an Oscar nomination, obviously, but I think we were both really good at knowing that we didn't really want that attention anyway, and so we really weren't exposed really that much in that way, and neither of us was terribly comfortable with that sort of thing, And it was before we were even like understood really like what that meant, you know.
I think it.
Got harder as we got older and River became more famous. It got harder for him. I think, well, I know it was harder for him, and he was not as equipped I think as maybe some other people might be to handle that stuff because he was a very at heart, very innocent and and like a driven by love human being, so that the contradictions of Hollywood and show business were
much more difficult for him. Yeah, and you know when we did break up eventually, we were together for about four years, and then when we did break up, we did remain friends, and we were each other's first love. That relationship never really goes away. You can't ever let something like that go. It's just too important and too like altering. I mean, it's part of it's made you who you are, you know, especially in those really formative years.
I mean, it's a huge part of who I am.
So yeah, so, and of course we stayed friends, but I think fame was really hard on River. I think he really just didn't know what to do with all of that kind and he wanted to do good, but it was really it's just the contradictions of it were too difficult.
Yeah, it seems like he was really lucky.
To have you.
Well, I think he was lucky to have me and his family, his brothers and sisters. I think, you know, his personality or his affliction, his illness was incredibly difficult for him to manage on his own, and he never really got the help that I think he would have done amazingly well with If he had gotten that help, I think he would have been an incredible advocate for sobriety and for people struggling with addiction. And unfortunately it just got him before he had a chance to do that.
But yeah, I mean I miss him every single day, every single day.
It all came to a head on October thirty first, nineteen ninety three, at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, when Phoenix died of an overdose. He was twenty three years old. That Halloween night, his girlfriend, Samantha Mathis, was right by riverside.
I think he was an iconic person for our generation, just like my parents talk about they knew where they were when John F.
Kennedy was killed.
Pretty Much everyone I know knows exactly where they were when River died, and what a loss of hope that was for our generation.
We've only just begun to uncover the remarkable life of River Phoenix, from his unorthodox upbringing to his rapid rise as a Hollywood icon. In the next episode, we'll delve deeper into the pressures that came with fame and the artistic choices that defined his legacy, including his films Dogfight and My Own Private Idaho. Join us next time for more on Variety Confidential, the life and legend of River Phoenix. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Variety
Confidential is created by Dea Lawrence and Stephen Gados. Season two is hosted by Tatiana Siegal, produced by Karen Misagucci and Sydney Kramer. Executive produced by da Lawrence and Tatiana Siegal. Written by Anna Moslin, Karen Mazagucci and Tatiana Siegal, Variety's co editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton, and Ramin Sechuda. Variety Content Studio Executive produced by Alex Hughes, Edited and mixed by Aaron Greenawald. Please refer to sources and citations on variety dot com