Joaquin Phoenix: Awards Season is 'Utter Bulls***'

Joaquin Phoenix, 37, is being hailed as a huge Oscar contender for his role as Freddie Quell in The Master, but he tellsInterview magazine that he doesn't want any awards.

"I'm just saying that I think it's bulls***. I think it's total, utter bulls***, and I don't want to be a part of it," Phoenix, who was already an Oscar nominee for his role as Johnny Cash in the 2005 film Walk the Line, tells Interview's special correspondent Elvis Mitchell. "I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective."

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Critics predict that both he and Philip Seymour Hoffman will be up for their roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's film The Master, but not if it were up to Phoenix. "Pitting people against each other . . . It's the stupidest thing in the whole world. It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when Walk the Line was going through all the awards stuff and all that," he continues. "I never want to have that experience again. I don't know how to explain it—and it's not like I'm in this place where I think I'm just above it—but I just don't ever want to get comfortable with that part of things."

The Master is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Do you agree with Phoenix's views on awards season?