How Werner Saved Joaquin Phoenix, In His Own Words [On The Wings Of Werner]

Likely to nobody's surprise, Defamer's interlude last week with Werner Herzog yielded far more than just a few minutes' worth of feud-worthy slaps at his contemporary Abel Ferrara, whose Bad Lieutenant Herzog is remaking continuing later this year with Nicolas Cage. We also had the opportunity to get Herzog's side of a story first reported two years back by the L.A. Times, in which Joaquin Phoenix credited eyewitness Herzog for relaxing him after the actor rolled his car in Laurel Canyon.

And as our own version at the time relied on Phoenix's fantastical post-traumatic memory, we thought it necessary to close out this chapter of Hollywood folklore with the director's slightly more crystalline account. (The conference-room reverb makes Herzog's recollection even that much more godlike; you're welcome.) Flash back with us for the hell of it after the jump, and learn whom you have to thank for another Phoenix family crisis averted.

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