Exploring his dark side

With his hands as jittery as his speech, Joaquin Phoenix immediately lives up to his reputation as being one of Hollywood's most intense stars. 'I guess I'm the acting equivalent of somebody that jumps off buildings and parachutes,' he says.

The last time Phoenix worked with James Gray, the director commented: 'He has an inner Beelzebub.' That was seven years ago on New York underworld thriller The Yards. Now they're back together in We Own The Night, an equally compelling crime film set in the same city in the late 1980s.

You might say it was a case of better the devil you know, as Phoenix not only reunites with Gray but also his Yards co-star Mark Wahlberg. They play brothers on opposite sides of the law: Bobby (Phoenix) is a club manager embroiled in the local Russian mafia; Joseph (Wahlberg) is a captain in the police force who, after raiding his sibling's hot spot, sets in motion a chain of tragic events.

The overtones are Shakespearean, and Gray has cited Henry IV as an influence - not that Phoenix had a clue. 'I didn't read Henry IV,' he laughs. 'I don't know Shakespeare! I'm not a serious actor. Directors always make references, and I go: "Ah, I'll check it out," and I never, ever do. I'm incredibly lazy.'

This honesty makes the 33-year-old an appealing actor to interview. Today, he's in the mood to demythologise the Hollywood hype that surrounds his profession. 'I'm so sick and tired of actors saying they had nightmares,' he says. 'I feel an obligation to set the record straight. Actors who say they're affected by something, that they take it home with them, they're just trying to get nominated for an Oscar.'

After receiving an Academy nomination for his weedy emperor in Gladiator, Phoenix picked up a second for his spot-on Johnny Cash in Walk The Line - just months after a spell in rehab. Yet not once did you see Phoenix milk this for a shot at Oscar glory.

Phoenix prefers to bare his soul on screen rather than in the media - something that can be traced to the night in 1993 when his elder brother, Stand By Me star River, died of a drugs overdose outside LA's Viper Room club. It was Joaquin who called the emergency services as his sibling lay dying in his arms, and it was his distressed words that were broadcast the world over. What with this, and a much-publicised break-up with Liv Tyler after three years together, Phoenix was understandably wary of the media.

'I think people have this misperception that I dislike the press,' he says now. 'I don't dislike the press. I just don't enjoy sitting and answering questions. It's just a personal thing for me.'

That said, as he bounces back and forth between subjects, he's far from monosyllabic. In part, he has no choice;

We Own The Night gives him his first credit as a producer. 'It was after the success of Walk The Line that I was able to do this movie,' he says. 'Otherwise, they wouldn't have financed a movie of this budget, which wasn't much. It was $20million or something.' He stops for a second. 'Was I not supposed to say that? Is that cool? Can you believe this... I've been doing it forever, and I still don't know what's right and what's not. I'm constantly putting my foot in my mouth.'