Then again, he might not have been in the entertainment industry at all. In her interview, Mathis said that had Phoenix lived, she thinks he would be “acting, directing, saving the environment, just living and hanging out.” Something about it triggered all the more difficult parts of his life.” “We were all worried about the crowd he was with,” Bogdanovich said. “In the days before he died, though, I knew something was going on,” she acknowledged to the Guardian.ĭirector Peter Bogdanovich, a friend of Phoenix’s who had directed him and Mathis in The Thing Called Love, told Entertainment Weekly in November 1993 that he had suspicions about the company Phoenix was keeping at the time of his death. He was known as a vegan, or ultra-vegetarian, who would not eat meat or dairy products or wear leather.”Īs far as Mathis knew, he was sober during their relationship. In an obituary, the Los Angeles Times described Phoenix this way: “Unlike other twenty-something stars branded with bad-boy and bad-girl images, Phoenix was described as the model of good health, clean living, and professional dedication - a cleaned-up ’90s James Dean. She described Phoenix as “sensitive and obsessive,” someone who “felt things in his heart very deeply.” “It just felt fated between us, and there was such chemistry.” “This sounds incredibly cheesy, but I knew I would be with him one day,” Mathis said. (Photo: Michael Tighe/Donaldson Collection/Getty Images) River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis in The Thing Called Love. “I didn’t see anyone doing drugs but he was high in a way that made me feel uncomfortable - I was in way over my head. “I knew something was wrong that night, something I didn’t understand,” said Mathis, who’s also known for roles in movies such as Little Women and Pump Up the Volume. She thought they were dropping off his brother and sister, but Phoenix asked if it was OK if they stayed to watch the live music. She recalled that their visit to the Viper Room, which at the time was partially owned by Johnny Depp, was unexpected, at least on her part. Mathis, along with Phoenix’s younger siblings Joaquin and Rain, were by his side when it happened.Įven though it was years ago, Mathis remembered her last night with Phoenix vividly, and broke into tears twice during the interview. 31, 1993, outside the Viper Room nightclub on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Mathis was 23 when Phoenix, also 23 at the time, died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin in the early morning hours of Oct. Mathis felt “like the universe wanted me to talk about him,” she said in the new interview. She finally did so this week, when a reporter for the Guardian approached her after she’d watched the film for the first time since he died. It took Samantha Mathis 25 years and a single viewing of The Thing Called Love, a 1993 dramedy in which she starred alongside then boyfriend River Phoenix, to be able to talk about his death. Samantha Mathis in New York City last year.
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