"I'm surprised even now that I was aware of things like that at that age. I don't know why. But I decided I would just rather not do them. So I quit for a while."

When he returned to films a few years later, he wowed critics with his portrayal of Nicole Kidman's deluded teenage foil in the satirical "To Die For."

By the time of "Gladiator," he was on the cover of Details' "The Next Big Thing" issue. In that story, Phoenix was conflicted. He was confident he could act, but he wasn't sure he deserved all the praise suddenly coming his way. He called himself "unbelievably insecure" — something he overcomes by giving himself over to his characters.

"Most people have no idea what acting is," he says flatly. "They think all you do is reach back into your own experience for motivation. When they see that Johnny Cash lost an older brother, they think about me and my brother, and go, 'Ah, that's why you can do that scene' or whatever."

(River Phoenix, who had a breakthrough performance in the film "Stand By Me," was on a fast-track to stardom when he died of a drug overdose after collapsing outside a West Hollywood club in 1993. His brother was at his side.)

"The fact is I very much know how to separate my life from a character's life."

He illustrates the point with a story. Phoenix was working years ago with a director (unnamed) who knew from one of Phoenix's ex-girlfriends that the couple had gone through a heated argument.

When he had trouble with a scene, the director urged him to think about the argument with the girlfriend.

"I can't describe the feeling, but it was like having everything sucked right out of you," Phoenix said, still bristling from the experience. "An incredible self-awareness about my life came over me and completely took me out of that scene. It made me feel so self-conscious that I walked off the set for four hours.

"That director managed in one sentence to unravel months of preparation," he says. "It's something I learned about myself very early on. I develop a character and I get involved with the character and I start thinking about the world through their eyes, and I can't let in any trace of self-awareness."

It's the way he protects a process that seems somehow fragile — his guard against being part of an assembly line.

"There are actors who just want to be rich and famous and they succeed…." He stops. He worries that he's starting to sound pompous. "I don't want to be the one to judge others."

"Besides," he adds, after another pause: "I'm probably not above it. I reserve the right to change. Maybe in five years, maybe in one year, you may see me doing nothing but moth-alien science-fiction movies and getting paid a lot of money."

Record producer Burnett, who has known Phoenix for 15 years and also worked with Cash, doesn't see that happening.

"Like John, Joaquin has very little interest in the glitz of show business," he says. "He's driven by a genuine artistic passion. He also has a tender conscience. He won't allow himself to be corrupted."