- James Mangold considered Joaquin Phoenix for Johnny Cash in “A Complete Unknown.”
- Phoenix played Cash in Mangold’s 2005 movie “Walk the Line.”
- Mangold decided Phoenix would be too old and didn’t want to service “meta-movie universe stuff,” he told BI.
“A Complete Unknown,” James Mangold’s look at the life of Bob Dylan, almost gave us another taste of Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash.
Mangold, who previously directed Phoenix in his acclaimed performance as Cash in the 2005 movie “Walk the Line,” recently revealed to Business Insider that he thought of calling up Phoenix to play The Man in Black again in his new movie. Cash was pals with Dylan at the start of the folk singer’s career, which is what “A Complete Unknown” covers.
“The thought occurred to me,” Mangold told BI about the possible casting. “But then I realized he’d be 20-30 years too old to be playing the part.”
But wouldn’t the hair and makeup departments (and perhaps a little CGI) have gotten Phoenix back to looking like he did playing Cash in 2005?
Fox
“Okay, but then what am I servicing?” Mangold responded. “This kind of meta-movie universe stuff that has plagued us enough? I’m a big fan of making a movie and giving the public the movie. Don’t try to suture the movie to another movie, just own it. Otherwise movies just become this hyper-expensive television series in which we never stop making new episodes every couple of years.”
The Cash role in “A Complete Unkown” would eventually go to Boyd Holbrook, who has starred in other Mangold movies like “Logan” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
Searchlight Pictures
In the movie, Cash is a great admirer of Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet). The two are pen pals and later share the same bill at the Newport Folk Festival. It’s there that Dylan famously plays an electric guitar for the first time — a controversial move, given that the festival was known for only playing acoustic music. The crowd boos him, but Cash stands by his friend, giving him words of encouragement backstage.
Though Mangold didn’t go full “meta-movie universe,” “A Complete Unknown” and “Walk the Line” are very much linked. In “Walk the Line,” Cash speaks to his wife, June (Reese Witherspoon), about Dylan’s talents and plays his music in one scene.
“A Complete Unknown” is now playing in theaters.
