Goodbye Joaquin Phoenix?

With the state of the economy these days, it seems even celebrities are contemplating major career changes.

According to multiple news sources, actor and two-time Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix is retiring from film to pursue a career in music. He first made the surprise announcement last week on an interview with Extra; which, in fact, was such a surprise that the reporter thought he was joking. You can see part of the interview here. Please enjoy watching the nearly incoherent Phoenix storm off at the end in apparent disbelief. Hilarious.

Then, this past weekend at a premiere of his latest film, Two Lovers, Phoenix confirmed the rumors by writing 'Bye! Good' on his hands and then incoherently muttering to the press:

"It's like greener pastures, you know what I mean? ... And so, I'm just going to try and like, I'll just be doing the other thing. ... Hopefully, I will emotionally impact you with that, as well."

Anyway, I would just like to take this time to wish Joaquin the best of luck in his new endeavors. I've only seen you as the evil, whiny Commodus in Gladiator and as Mel Gibson's brother in Signs, and you were pretty good in those movies. Apparently you were also great as Johnny Cash in the highly-acclaimed Walk the Line.

However, just because you have a name and just because you recently discovered your musical talents (he learned to sing and play guitar exclusively for his role as Johnny Cash) doesn't mean you're going to make it in the music industry (or does it?). As much as I want you to succeed and prosper, I only have seven words to describe the difficult road ahead of you: Dogstar and 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. Never heard of them? They were the bands of Keanu Reeves and your Gladiator-nemesis, Russell Crowe.

I look forward to hearing your work; just don't take as long as Guns N' Roses did. In the meantime, I'll browse your IMDb profile and mourn your loss from the film community.