Desperately trying to promote a movie that's been almost completely overshadowed by Joaquin Phoenix's dumb, hoax-y rap career, Two Lovers director James Gray sat down with ABC News Radio yesterday for an interview ... about Joaquin Phoenix's dumb, hoax-y rap career. "If it is an act, it's the most committed act I've ever seen in my life," Gray said, probably thinking about all the money he spent on film school. "I mean, he built this studio [in his house]. The lengths to which he's taken it are quite extreme."

Gray seems sort of reluctantly willing to play along with his friend's movie-retirement stupid stunt, since at this point it's probably his only shot at getting his movie any attention at all. He's not really all that convincing, though: "Toward the end of the shoot, [Phoenix] kept saying 'Oh I'm so tired, I'm so tired.' You hear that kind of thing and you think it's a joke ... I just ignored it."

In a small moment of victory, however, the director is actually able to mention his movie once, if only because it contains a brief scene in which Phoenix raps:

"That rap thing ... in the movie actually comes from something I played for him," Gray said. "I had an obsession with doing that sort of thing as a teenager. ... It turns out that Joaquin is imitating me in a lot of the movie. He said, 'I want to do that, I want to steal from that, I want to do the rap that you used to do.' I said, 'OK.'

"And now I'm seeing him do this thing, and I feel like I've ruined Joaquin Phoenix for the world," Gray added. "I don't want to be the guy that destroyed Joaquin Phoenix's acting career."

He'd probably like to punch him, though!

Director: I Feel I Ruined Joaquin Phoenix [ABC]

Earlier: Joaquin Phoenix’s Forgotten Victim: His New Movie
Joaquin Phoenix on His ‘Terrible’ New Rap Career

Related: David Edelstein on Two Lovers [NYM]