Rain Phoenix says that the horrific death of her brother, the Hollywood icon River Phoenix, has led her to a very vibrant relationship with death — and she’s even studied to become a “death doula.”
On the anniversary of his passing, Rain published an essay that explained how, after the “My Own Private Idaho” star’s 1993 overdose at 23 years old, she handled the tragedy by “shutting it out.”
But she says that she came to feel that approach “somehow kept him from me.”
“Now 32 years and many losses later,” she writes in the piece on Another Jane Pratt Thing, “a deepening curiosity about death, grief and how we as a society process it, has come alive for me.”
The actress and musician says she recently began learning about the “death-positive movement,” which “encourages people to speak openly about death, dying and corpses,” and believes that contemplating death more deeply may lead to greater happiness in life.
Rain — who is also the sister of Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix — adds that early in the pandemic, when the specter of death was everywhere, “my anxiety led me to take an online course on how to become a death doula and write a million songs.”
(According the International End of Life Doula Association, that’s someone who “guides a person who is transitioning to death and their loved ones through the dying process.”)
She also released a previously unpublished photograph of her with River, believed to have been taken by famed director Gus Van Sant, in the essay.
Rain was with River and Joaquin on Halloween night when he overdosed on cocaine and heroin after performing at the Viper Room nightclub in Hollywood, then owned by Johnny Depp.
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