Joaquin Phoenix has said choosing what movies to star in is a bit like dating – sometimes it just feels right.

The 40-year-old actor has teamed up with director Paul Thomas Anderson for the second time since 2013′s The Master – which earned him a best actor Oscar nomination – for his new movie Inherent Vice, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel set in the drug-fuelled Los Angeles of 1970.

Joaquin admitted the director is “the most important” consideration for him when choosing projects.

Joaquin Phoenix (MIchael Germana/Starmax/EMPICS)
Joaquin Phoenix (MIchael Germana/Starmax/EMPICS)

He added: “Sometimes, it’s just a feeling. It’s like when you start dating somebody, there are all these reasons why you like them and it’s a leap of faith. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes…”

Joaquin was also nominated for Oscars in 2006 for the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, and in 2001 for his role in Gladiator.

Putting his enviable roles down to “luck”, and describing himself as “realistic” about his career, he has noticed a change in the work he’s been offered recently, however.

“I’ve been so fortunate,” he said. “There are movies and scripts I read and five years ago I would have worked with, and now… I don’t, you know. I’m definitely spoiled.”

Inherent Vice is in cinemas now.