Author: Jessica Chandra / Source: nine.com.au
Samantha Mathis, the actress who was dating River Phoenix at the time of his death, has given an in-depth interview about the night the promising young actor died on October 30, 1993.
The American star, 48, broke her silence to The Guardian for a piece called ‘The untold story of lost star River Phoenix – 25 years after his death,’ which includes reflections from other Hollywood heavyweights who worked with Phoenix, such as Rob Reiner, who directed Phoenix in 1986’s Stand by Me.
Mathis was just 23 — the same age as Phoenix — when he died on the sidewalk outside The Viper Room, the nightclub owned by Johnny Depp on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.
She said she had a strange feeling when she and Phoenix walked into the club with his siblings, Leaf (now known as Joaquin Phoenix) and Rain. Mathis thought they would just be dropping them off and then heading to her place, “but when we arrived he said to me: ‘Oh, there are some people playing music tonight in the club who want me to play with them — that’s OK, right?'” she recalled.
“I knew something was wrong that night, something I didn’t understand,” she said. “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.”
If anything, she didn’t think they would be at the Viper Room for long. “Forty-five minutes later, he was dead,” she said through tears.
Mathis — who starred with Phoenix in one of his last films, 1993’s The Thing Called Love — described in further detail what happened that night.
“I knew he was high that night, but the heroin that killed him didn’t happen…
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