(3)

導演Gus Van Sant 談到River的創造力：

“River was totally different,”Van Sant continues.“He has this kind of Mozart quality of just burying himself completely in research.He does it trough a sort of osmosis；everything you give him feeds into this plant that’s growing out of the information he’s got.He tape-records things, and talks to people；he has his own sources.It’s more tactile ：River will create something out of mixed media─film,writing,records,people talking,this whole wild thing. With Keanu, you give him a book, he’ll read the book. River might read part of the book, and if he’s interested he’ll read the whole book. ....”

--ELLE / OCT.1991

(4)


Michael Parker, inspiration for Phoenix’s character in Idaho:

We went to a park here in Portland that overlooks the entire city. We sat there on the grass talking. Then we went down to where the bars are, the corners where the kids hang out. We talked the entire day. I grabbed a piece of my gut and gave it to him. One of the reasons I opened up to him is that I felt he did understand and felt how I did--not the same way, but the pain.

--〈A brief life 〉Premiere/March 1994


(5)

Gus Van Sant:

River made the character gay. The character wasn’t really gay in the first place. Because he was a hustler, he didn’t really have a sexual identity. He added all the stuff where he was in love with Keanu Reeves’s character. He didn’t discuss it, he was just sort of doing it. He was using two really close friends of his as models to forge the character.

--〈A brief life〉Premiere/ March 1994

(7)

Eric Alan Edwards, director of photography, My Own Private Idaho:

He looked like a street kid. In a very raw way he wore that role. I’ve never seen anybody so intent on living his role.

--A brief life /Premiere/ March 1994


(8)

scene writer.

River寫了關鍵的一幕戲─《營火前的告白》，贏得影評及觀眾的一致讚賞。

有一段評論寫得很好：

...Mike does profess his craving for Scott in one of the most beautiful nuanced depictions of naked desire ever captured on film.
The scene transpires around a campfire as Scott and Mike move from benign conversation to the charged terrain of what they mean to one another.
The give and take is hushed,poetic,almost unbearably raw, culminating in Mike’s murmured plea,“I really want to kiss you, man.”
Their ensuing hug,a fumbling lurch, is nothing short of hearbreaking.

--Elizabeth Pincus   (http://www.planeout.com)

(9)Eric Alan Edwards ,director of photography, My Own Private Idaho :

I think he always looked up to Gus. It’s odd to have him looking up to Gus.[Laughs] I grew up with Gus. He was sort of humble in Gus’s presence, or at least he was looking to him for some approval.

--Premiere, March 1994