Joaquin Phoenix Tells Rooney Mara "I Love You" After Winning Best Actor at the 2020 Golden Globes

Joaquin Phoenix beat out Jonathan Pryce, Antonio Banderas, Christian Bale and Adam Driver to win the award for Best Actor in a Drama at the 2020 Golden Globes for Joker

By Tierney Bricker Jan 06, 2020 4:14 AMTags
Watch: Analyzing Joaquin Phoenix's Dark "Joker" Role: VidBits

This is no laughing matter.

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix won the award for Best Actor in a Drama at the 2020 Golden Globes on Sunday night, beating out Christian Bale for Ford v Ferrari, Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory, Adam Driver for Marriage Story, and Jonathan Pryce for The Two Popes.

At the beginning of his speech, Phoenix, who previously won a Golden Globe for Walk the Line in 2006, addressed his fellow nominees by saying he was "inspired" by them, before admitting he was especially intimidated by one actor.

"Some I've reached out to you personally, some I'm still a little too intimidated by, even though we share the same agent...Hi Christian, you're not here!"

 

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2020 Golden Globes: Party Pics

But Phoenix then got emotional when addressing Rooney Mara, his longtime girlfriend who he's rumored to be engaged to after she was spotted with a diamond ring on that finger in May 2019.

After calling her out in the audience, Phoenix simply choked out, "I love you," before wiping away tears. The couple has been romantically linked since 2017 and walked the red carpet together earlier in the night.

The 45-year-old then admitted he's a "pain in the ass" to work with when acknowledging Joker's writer and director Todd Phillips

 

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"Todd, you were such an amazing friend and collaborator. And you convinced me to do this movie and you encouraged me to give everything and to be sincere," he said. "And I'm such a pain in the ass, I cannot believe you put up with me I'm so indebted to you."

Finally, Phoenix ended his speech with a call to action to his fellow actors, calling some out for taking private jets after earlier commending the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for providing a plant-based dinner. 

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't want to rock the boat. But the boat is f--ked...it's really nice that so many people come up and sent their well-wishes to Australia," he said. "But we have to do more than that, right? Such a beautiful gesture and I have not always been a virtuous man. I'm learning so much so many of you in this room have given me multiple opportunities to get it right. I'm deeply grateful. Together hopefully we can be unified and actually make some changes."

Phoenix then continued, "It's great to vote but sometimes we have to take that responsibility on ourselves and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives and I hope that we can do that we don't have to take private jets to Palm Springs sometimes or back, please. I'll try to do better and I hope you will too. Thank you so much for putting up with me."