Quirky movie star Joaquin Phoenix tries to avoid downtime while shooting - because he hates having to live with the characters he has created for films like Gladiator and We Own The Night.

The actor would much rather bounce from one job to another and doesn't even like weekends off when he's working.

He tells Wenn, "When I'm in a film, I like working all the time. I dread having days off. Weekends are the hardest thing to get through. I always like to keep shooting straight.

"It's so difficult to come back after three weeks and just get in the groove. I need to be there every day. I remember when I was doing Gladiator I worked for the first couple of weeks and then I was off for like three weeks and it was very difficult for me to get back into it."