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Why Joaquin Phoenix Didn’t Reprise Johnny Cash Role in ‘A Complete Unknown’

Phoenix scored his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing Johnny Cash in 2005’s “Walk the Line.”

Director James Mangold said he considered bringing Joaquin Phoenix back to play Johnny Cash in his new Bob Dylan biopic film A Complete Unknown but ultimately decided against it, casting the actor Boyd Holbrook in the role instead. Mangold, who also directed Phoenix to his first Best Actor nomination for 2005’s Walk the Line, thought the actor would be too old for the part, even though at 50 he’s just seven years older than 43-year-old Holbrook. Cash was barely 30 when he met Dylan in the early ‘60s time period depicted in the movie. “The thought occurred to me,” Mangold said of reviving his version of Cash. “But then I realized he’d be 20-30 years too old to be playing the part.” Plus, he added, “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.”