When Joaquin Phoenix almost set himself on fire before entering rehab

Reminiscing a vicious accident, Joaquin Phoenix revealed how director Werner Herzog pointed his heedless behaviour post a lethal car crash. Later, he checked into a rehabilitation centre that gifted him a new life.

Los Angeles: Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix checked into a rehabilitation centre after director Werner Herzog highlighted his reckless ways following a near-death car crash.

Phoenix said he was drinking heavily and partying, post the success of the biopic Walk The Line 15 years ago, according to sources.

"I wasn't engaging with the world or myself in the way I wanted to. I was being an idiot, running around, drinking, trying to screw people, going to stupid clubs," the Joker star told a leading daily.

Then, one night, after he crashed his car, he was about to light a cigarette. That was when German filmmaker Herzog intervened.

A German voice said, 'Just relax'," Phoenix said, recalling how the director pointed out the car was leaking petrol and he was seconds away from potentially lighting himself on fire.

Phoenix entered a treatment facility days later. Today, the actor says, he has no urge or desire to drink like he used to.

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"There are too many things I enjoy doing and I don't want to wake up feeling hungover. It's not a thing I fight against, it's just the way I live my life."

From IANS inputs.