Phoenix: 'My rap debut was terrible'

Joaquin Phoenix has said that his recent rap performance in Las Vegas was "terrible".

Speaking at a roundtable interview to promote his final film Two Lovers, the 34-year-old called his hip-hop debut "terrible" and conceded that he was "really nervous" at the time.

"I just figure, put yourself out there and crash, and then you rebuild yourself and you kind of find your way into it," website Chud quotes Phoenix as saying.

"I didn't want to just start out and hire a producer and get someone to write stuff for me and do all that," he continued. "I really wanted to do it myself."

Talking about his decision to retire from film in favour of a recording career, Phoenix explained that he wanted music fans to see past his portrayal of Johnny Cash in Walk The Line.

"I felt that I had to do it, I had to do something extreme to get out of it....[I]t's like really hard for me to go into music because the first thing anyone says is 'Johnny Cash', so I really had to do something extreme to to get away from that," he said.