Beau is Afraid, the latest movie from Hereditary and Midsommar director Ari Aster, may feature a talented ensemble of supporting actors, but it's very much the Joaquin Phoenix show. Phoenix plays titular character Beau, an anxious, paranoid man who sets out on a surreal odyssey to travel back home to his overbearing mother.
"He's an actor that I've always wanted to work with, so he made immediate sense for this," Aster tells the Inside Total Film podcast. "The idea was, 'Let's offer it to Joaquin, and then when he turns it down, let's figure out who we go to next.'
