Beau Wassermann

Beau Wassermann is a fictional character appearing in the 2023 film Beau Is Afraid, from which he serves as the protagonist. He is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix as an adult and by Armen Nahapetian as a teenager.
He is an anxiety-ridden man who embarks on a surreal odyssey home after his mother suddenly dies, confronting his greatest fears along the way.
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==Biography==
Being portrayed as a mild-mannered and anxiety-ridden man, he embarks on a surreal journey to attend his mother's funeral. Beau is the son of Mona, a wealthy and famous businesswoman who built a large pharmaceutical empire, "MW Industries". He grows up without a father, who his mother claims died during an orgasm due to a hereditary heart murmur that she passed down to Beau. As a teenager, Beau meets and falls in love with a girl named Elaine, promising to remain virgins until they meet again as adults.
As an adult, Beau lives alone in the crime-ridden city of Corrina and is extremely anxious. His therapist prescribes an experimental drug for his anxiety, which he takes before embarking on a trip to Wasserton to see his mother for the anniversary of his father's death. After oversleeping and discovering his keys and luggage have been stolen, Beau takes his medication and panics when he discovers there's a water outage. He evades a group of homeless people and returns to his vandalized apartment. He tries to call his mother, only to learn that she died as a result of a fallen chandelier.
Beau wakes up two days later in the house of a married couple, Grace and Roger, who care for an unstable veteran named Jeeves. Roger promises to take Beau to his mother's estate as soon as possible, but he must rest until he is healed. Throughout his stay, Grace warns Beau not to "incriminate" himself and that he is under surveillance. On the day of Beau's new release, Toni, their angsty teenage daughter, attempts to force him to paint her brother's old room. When he refuses, she commits suicide by drinking a can of paint. Grace blames Beau for her death, and he flees into the woods.
Lost in the woods, Beau comes upon a group of traveling theatre actors named "The Orphans of the Forest.” He is invited to their rehearsal and becomes entranced by the play, imagining himself as the protagonist, who spends his entire life looking for his family after they’re separated by a flood. A man approaches Beau and informs him that he knew his father, who is still alive. The troupe is ambushed by Jeeves, who slaughters several actors in the process, and Beau flees deeper into the woods.
Beau hitchhikes the rest of his way to the estate, only to find that he had just missed his mother's funeral. He reconnects with Elaine, and they make their way to Mona's bedroom, where they have sex. Beau is terrified that he's going to die upon climaxing but is relieved when he survives. However, Elaine has died mid-climax, her body frozen stiff. Mona reveals that his therapist works for her, having shared their sessions with her for years. Beau demands to know the truth about his father, and she takes him to the attic, where he learns that he has a secret twin brother, and his father is actually a giant penis-shaped monster. At that moment, Jeeves breaks into the house and is killed by the penis monster. After further humiliation from his mother, Beau strangles her.
In shock, Beau leaves the estate and finds a motorboat on a beach, commandeering it into the sea. After entering a cave, the boat's motor begins to stall, and he suddenly finds himself in a crowded arena, where he's put on trial by a still-alive Mona and Dr. Cohen acting as prosecutors on a podium. On a jumbotron, they show footage of every instance of Beau slighting his mother, including falsely accusing Beau's father of sexual abuse, revealing that his father.
==Appearances==
*Beau Is Afraid (2023)
Category:Characters
Category:Male characters
Category:Beau Is Afraid characters
Category:Characters portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix
Category:Characters portrayed by Armen Nahapetian