He talks about making it on his own, what really happened with Liv Tyler, and hanging out in the same Hollywood that brought his brother's world to an end. By Jeanne Fay

It's lunchtime at Hollywood's hard-core vegetarian restaurant Real Food Daily, and Joaquin (pronounced Wah-keen) Phoenix is getting service so attentive it borders on harassment. Water glasses are refilled after his smallest sip and his satisfaction with the miso soup is queried at regular intervals. An ardent vegan (a vegetarian who eats no meat, fish, or dairy), the 24-year-old Phoenix has patronized Real Food every day this week. The way lie sees it, the wait staffs just keeping an eye on a regular.

Maybe. But Phoenix, little brother of the late River Phoenix, has become quite a familiar face these days—and not just to the Real Food waiters. He's just finished four back-to-back films that began last fall with Clay Pigeons (with Vince Vaughn) and Return to Paradise (also with Vaughn, and Anne Heche). He flew directly from filming Paradise in Thailand to the States where he bopped between the N ew York, Los Angeles, and Miami sets of this month s thriller 8MM, in which he's starring with Nie Cage. When that shoot ended, it was a few more mouths in New York City for the upcoming dramatic thriller The Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg.

If this semi-nomadic way of life sounds exhausting, it is. But if anyone can handle it, Joaquin Phoenix can.

Raising Arizona Being a kid in the Phoenix family wasn't aconventional experience. Joaquin's parents were missionaries, traveling with their children through Central and South America (Joaquin was born in Puerto Rico) before finally settling in Los Angeles when he was 4 years old. His family's introduction to show business "was an innocent evolution—we didn't set out saying 'We're going to be actors,'" he says. "But it was pretty apparent that there was talent in the family." As kids they would sometimes sing in the streets to entertain

passersby, and when their mother began working for a casting director, all five young Phoenixes (River, Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer) were signed with an agent. Joaquin, who temporarily renamed himself Leaf when he was six, began acting soon after, appearing on TV shows such as Murder, She Wrote and in kids' movies like SpaceCamp.

For along time, of course, his career was overshadowed by that of his brilliant older brother. River, who died of a drug overdose after a night of partying at L.A.'s Viper Room in 1993. Joaquin is notoriously defensive when it's suggested that his brother had an ongoing drug problem, saying that there was just one unfortunate night that went too far. The storm of media attention after River s death overwhelmed Joaquin; both as a bereaved brother and as an aspiring actor, he was followed by camera crews and questioning journalists.

But Joaquin didn't let the constant glare of the spotlight keep him down either. He doesn't worry about the same fate and won't shy away from the party scene altogether; he'll occasionally pop up in gossip columns for raising hell with the likes of Ben Affleck. But he's also not offended by the media labeling him his brother's heir apparent in acting. "I'm proud of my brother," he says. "I would never not want to be associated with him."

What finally made Joaquin a star in his own right, however, was his role in 1995 s To Die For as the slack-jawed teen who falls for Nicole Kidman's murderously ambitious weathergirl. It soon led to roles in Inventing the Abbotts and Oliver Stone's U Turn. Phoenix had entered the ranks of Young Hollywood, however reluctantly: "I'm not in this business for the lifestyle, to get into places and have free drinks."

He doesn't appear to be in it for the ego trip either—rarely satisfied, with his performances, Phoenix doesn't often make it through screenings of his own films.

Perhaps that explains his apparent unfamiliarity with his own face: "I look great there," he says, pointing at a picture in a magazine. He is gently told that the photograph is, in fact, of actor-director Ed Bums. "Oil, that's not me?" he says. "I was gonna say...I'm good-looking."

The thing is, though, that he is goodlooking —in what is usually called an unconventional way, thanks to those wicked eyebrows and slightly skewed mouth. Speaking of eyebrows, he has acquired a bit of an accessory for his. In 8MM, lie plays a tattoo-ridden, vinyl-pants-clad sex-shop employee. "I hate acting acting—I try to be," Phoenix says, explaining the physical transformation he undergoes for a part. Consequently, Phoenix dyed his hair and pierced his brow for the film.

Liv and Learn

Being the new It guy has made Phoenix fodder for the gossip columns again, especially with his longtime, recently ended romance with Abbotts costarLiv Tyler. His analysis of the breakup paints it as the most civil in Hollywood. "I'm a great believer in people coining into your life, and you into theirs, for a reason," he says. "And I know that when Liv and I met, it was for a reason—I really needed her and she really needed me. And at a certain point, I think we stopped evolving with each other, stopped progressing, and made a very mature decision to move on, even though there was still a great love there. There's no one gossipy thing that I can share. I'm thankful that we had the time we had."

Gentle responses like this help paint a picture of Phoenix as the sweet, sensitive type. But Phoenix isn't content resting with that reputation or with the work he's done so far. "When you become satisfied, you stop fighting, and I like fighting," he says. "It means that I'm constantly'progressing and evolving. I'm never satisfied, and hopefully, I never will be."