Joaquin Phoenix was desperate to quit work on his hoax documentary I'm Still Here after the first few months of pretending he was a wannabe rapper - because he longed for a return to normal life.
 
The Oscar-nominee stunned fans in 2008 by announcing he was quitting acting to forge a new career as a rapper and hit headlines with a series of strange stunts, including a shambolic appearance on David Letterman's talk show and falling off stage at his first gig.

It was all filmed by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck for their new film I'm Still Here and Phoenix recently confirmed the whole project was a hoax.  The actor now admits he found it tough to keep up his bizarre new persona during filming and almost gave up because he was so desperate to get back to reality.

He tells Extra TV, "To be frank, we were kind of hostage to the process. There were times, honestly, where I wanted out. Even on a conventional film, I'm done after four months. But this went on and on."

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