JOAQUIN PHOENIX on getting into a character, on drinking and Johnny Cash:
The problem, he says, was work. Or, rather, not working.
"When I work, work becomes my sole focus, and when I would finish a film I didn't know what to do with myself," he says. "It's always a difficult period leading up to a film, because when I get into a character I step away from everything that is part of what makes me me. When I go away on location, all I have that really reminds me of myself is a pair of boxers -- I get rid of clothes, everything, show up with basically nothing in a strange city where I don't know anybody. Then you start getting the props that you use in the film, you start getting the wardrobe, and you start developing these traits and things that make you comfortable as the character.
"And then the film is over and you have to give back the props and give back the clothes and I can't spend four hours of my day working on a song. So you have this period of 'What'll I do?' So it's a difficult period when it's over. There's always a period in which I don't do anything, just the bare necessities, breathe and eat."
After filming ended on "Walk the Line," Phoenix noticed he was "drinking more than I was happy with. So I just decided that I would stop. I don't know, maybe I'll start drinking again in a couple of months, but one thing that John showed is that sobriety is not synonymous with being boring. His best work was done before he was addicted and after, when he got clean."
