Making films still freaks me out, says Gladiator star Joaquin

JOAQUIN Phoenix has revealed that even after 30 years in the business, being on a film set still terrifies him. In an interview for the December issue of Esquire, the star, pictured, talked openly about his fear of acting and said: ‘I don’t know my craft! Every movie, I feel like it’s my first.’

The actor and musician, 39, also said his success has come from pure luck and he’s ‘uncontrollably shaking, physically nervous’ on every film set.

Counting luck as the reason for his success, the Walk The Line actor – who dated Liv Tyler in the Nineties – said: ‘No way am I like, “Yeah, I got this”. Every time feels f****** terrifying.

‘They have to put pads in my armpits because I sweat so much that it drips down my wardrobe.

‘These guys I’ve been working with, Spike and Paul [directors Spike Jonze and Paul Thomas Anderson]... I was thinking the other day, “What happened? I don’t deserve to be here!”’

Phoenix said he just wants to do his job like everyone else and is fuelled by a burning desire to please directors. ‘I like being an employee,’ he said. ‘My job is to please the director, that’s it. Because seriously, if you see cuts and dailies, it’s hard for any actor to take credit.

‘Any performance in a movie is the complete work, and it’s the director that sews it all together.

‘It matters so much to me to impress the director. I get crippled by my own thought process. I just want to make this person happy.’

And while the reclusive actor may have starred in criticallyacclaimed films such as The Master and Gladiator he claimed he’s not inundated with offers.

Phoenix said: ‘I’m choosing one out of two movies. It’s a pretty limited choice.’

But he said in the interview that he believes it’s this lack of choice that keeps him safe from another fear – becoming a cog in the machine. ‘When people are constantly adjusting your collar and your lapel and you just give in to it? It’s over. You’re no longer a human being,’ he said.

‘ When you see an adult actor on set, they look infantilised. People are there to dress you. They bring you espressos and lattes and s***. It’s like arrested development.’