“I do not like to fulfill actors with a script. I simply wished to see if he preferred the thought,” Carax instructed Indiewire of his plan to forged Phoenix when Sparks pitched him the thought for “Annette” again in 2012. “However he was too shy to fulfill.” An actor being too shy to fulfill with a director a few challenge nearly sounds extra like one thing that will occur in certainly one of Carax’s motion pictures than in actual life, however Phoenix has a mercurial character, so this really tracks with a few of his earlier habits. (He got here near taking part in Physician Unusual for Marvel Studios, however ultimately realized he would not be match for it.)
With out Driver, “Annette” could not have gotten made in any respect; the actor additionally served as a producer on the movie, helped safe financing, and labored some magic behind the scenes to assist shepherd it to the end line. But when Phoenix have been forged as a substitute, his star energy and Oscar-winning bonafides might have been equally helpful to the making of the film.
Efficiency-wise, it is clear Phoenix might have performed a model of Henry McHenry. In any case, he gained his Oscar for enjoying a vulgar humorist in “Joker,” and he has expertise singing on digicam within the 2005 musical “Stroll the Line,” through which he performed nation music famous person Johnny Money. However Phoenix comes from an older technology, and there is one thing about Driver’s comparatively youthful vigor that makes “Annette” really feel extra out of time, extra uncommon than anything that got here out in 2021. And that sense of uniqueness, the daring “are they actually doing this?” high quality, is what makes “Annette” actually (pardon the pun) sing. So whereas Phoenix might have been nice, Driver ended up being the proper man for the job.