Ari Aster Talks About His New Film And Working With Joaquin Phoenix During A Surprise April’s Fool Screening In Brooklyn

Moviegoers had a big surprise Saturday afternoon while walking into a Midsommar screening at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn. Tickets were sold for a special screening of the director’s cut, however, in the spirit of April’s Fool the screening was a bit different. The audience actually watched the first theater screening of Ari Aster’s new film entitled Beau is Afraid. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character and will open in theaters on April 21.

For this special screening the director was there along with actress Emma Stone who asked the director: “Are you okay, man?’” right after watching the film. Beau is Afraid is indeed an interesting film that would open that question, however for anyone familiar to Aster’s work it would be expected. The new feature is classified as horror-comedy and follows a neurotic man named Beau who has to face a big journey to get home after a family tragedy. The character has to face several complications to complete the journey, including being kidnapped and stalked. The feature also includes an animated sequence and lasts three hours total. The director explained to Stone at the auditorium: “I want you to go through his guts and come out of his butt.”

Aster also explained that the film happens around a simple premise:

“The joke here for a long time is that Beau is really worried about everything and I’m going to put him a situation that could go wrong in one of 10 ways”

Working with Phoenix Aster said it was a career highlight for him:  “He’s so beyond committed,” he said about the actor and continued, “He really makes decisions carefully because when he takes something on it’s his whole life. Every dangerous thing that Beau does, Joaquin did.”

This meant Phoenix doing some dangerous stunts, such as falling down ladders and crashing through glass doors, a stunt in which he ended up with a shard of glass in his side. The director also commented that Phoenix fainted during a scene with Patti DuPone, who plays his mother in the film. The actor got so exhausted he passed out. Aster mentioned:  “I knew that it was bad because he was letting people touch him”.