3. Johnny Cash - Walk The Line
Phoenix had delivered fantastic performances prior to his 2005 starring role as Johnny Cash in the James Mangold-directed bio-pic. But this performance showed the first signs of Phoenix's true dedication to the Method, allowing himself to be fully immersed in a character and undergo a physical transformation as well as an emotional one. Phoenix doesn't look particularly like Johnny Cash - he has a longer face, a thinner frame, and more attractive features. But he truly
becomes Cash in this film, changing his voice, expression, demeanor, and even singing all of the songs on the soundtrack himself. Overall, Walk the Line is a well-made, handsomely produced but ultimately somewhat generic musical bio-pic (it was the predominant source of parody for the film Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story), but Phoenix's transformation into the legendary Cash elevated the film above the tropes of the genre, and it earned Phoenix his second career Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Lead Role.