WERNER HERZOG - HERZOG WORRIED PHOENIX'S SMOKING WOULD CAUSE EXPLOSION

HERZOG WORRIED PHOENIX'S SMOKING WOULD CAUSE EXPLOSION

German director WERNER HERZOG was frightened actor JOAQUIN PHOENIX would blow them both up as he tried to light a cigarette following a car accident last year (06). The Walk The Line star was rescued by Herzog after he overturned his car when his brakes failed and he collided with another vehicle on a Los Angeles canyon road in January 2006. Shortly after the accident, Phoenix recalled, "I remember this knocking on the passenger window. There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.' There's the airbag, I can't see and I'm saying, 'I'm fine. I am relaxed. Finally, I rolled down the window and this head pops inside. And he said, 'No, you're not.' "And suddenly I said to myself, 'That's Werner Herzog!' There's something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog's voice. I felt completely fine and safe. I climbed out. I got out of the car and I said, 'Thank you,' and he was gone." But Herzog was more concerned with Phoenix's desire to smoke to calm his nerves. He says, "The danger wasn't the accident, per se. It was the gasoline dripping from the car and the fact that Joaquin, then upside down, was nervously fumbling for a cigarette, an act I had to talk him out of. "Once I saw the gasoline, I thought the idea of him smoking would be a very bad idea."