Odd man in: audiences have Joaquin Phoenix peggy as deeply weird and lacking in humor. They're half wrong. (Eye).

Maybe I am the weird one," muses Joaquin Phoenix, sucking on a cigarette outside a TriBeCa cafe. "I don't know...."

The way he sees it, somebody's got to be weird. It's either him or us--the rest of the world-and the bulk of the evidence points to him. Among the traits that have earned Phoenix the label are a terror of flying so intense it often manifests as a sort of airborne Tourette's syndrome, causing him to scream out, "Just land the bird, motherf--er!" or some such thing. Not to mention the fact that he's been a vegan since age three--and a chain-smoker for years.

And then there's his profound fear of talk shows, despite being a poised and well-regarded actor in mostly popular films, the latest of which, M. Night Shyamalan's paranormal drama Sings, is out this month. (Two more are in the can: It's All About Love, a romantic parable by Danish director Thomas Vintenberg, and Buffalo Soldiers, a M.A.S.H.--like military black comedy that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001, just days before the terrorist attacks made it a nearly impossible sell.)

So what's wrong with talk shows? "I always think it's odd that someone goes out there in front of all these people and tells really stupid stories that no one cares about," Phoenix mutters. "I know I'm uncomfortable and really …