We have a pretty good idea who Joaquin Phoenix's favorite director is these days.

In an only-in-La-La Land bit of serendipity, Phoenix tells the Los Angeles Times that none other than famed German director Werner Herzog came to his rescue after Phoenix accidentally flipped his car last week on a winding canyon road.

The 31-year-old actor, who scored an Oscar nomination earlier this week for his performance as Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk the Line, walked away from the mishap escaping serious injury.

According to the police report, the actor was driving along Lookout Mountain Avenue near Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills at about 3 p.m., when his brakes suddenly gave out. Trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle, Phoenix veered his car into an embankment, where it overturned, causing the driver's side airbag to deploy. The other driver was uninjured.

After the vehicle rolled over on its roof, Phoenix, who was wearing his seatbelt was flung into the passenger side. He told the Times he felt "a bit confused."

Enter Herzog.

"I remember this knocking on the passenger window," Phoenix said. "There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.' There's the air bag. I can't see, and I'm saying, 'I'm fine. I am relaxed.' "

"Finally, I rolled down the window and this head pops inside. And he said, 'No, you're not.' And suddenly I said to myself, 'That's Werner Herzog!' " There's something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog's voice. I felt completely fine and safe. I climbed out."

An icon of German cinema, Herzog has been known for his sometimes reckless, hot-tempered and even dangerous approach to filmmaking--particularly in his ability to coax masterful performances from his onscreen foil, eccentric German acting legend Klaus Kinski. The two collaborated on such '70s classics as Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Woyzeck and Nosferatu.

In the Criterion documentary Burden of Dreams, chronicling the making of the epic Fitzcarraldo, Herzog is shown deftly handling the seemingly half-crazed Kinski and commanding his crew to haul a steamboat over a mountain at a 40-degree angle.

In 1980, the volatile director famously ate his shoe--no, we're not kidding--after losing a bet with a filmmaker Errol Morris. Herzog scarfed down the boiled footwear with a bit of garlic and Tabasco sauce as he held forth on art, literature and life, all captured in the documentary Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

The 63-year-old's latest production is his most acclaimed in years. The documentary Grizzly Man details the heartwrenching story of naturalist Timothy Treadwell who became famous--and controversial--for his up-close-and-personal encounters with bears in the wilds of Alaska before meeting an untimely end. The film earned Herzog the award for Best Documentary Director from the Directors Guild of America last weekend. (The film was deemed not eligible for the Oscars.)

Herzog could not be reached for comment, but a rep for Lions Gate, the studio that released Grizzly Man, confirmed the director had indeed helped Phoenix out of the wreckage. And the actor is grateful.

"I got out of the car and I said, 'Thank you,' " Phoenix recounted. "And he was gone."