Joaquin Phoenix Calls For Action
The Best Actor Oscar winner used his acceptance speech to deliver a powerful message to Hollywood
At last night’s 92nd Academy Awards, Joaquin Phoenix, who has been delivering impactful acceptance speeches all awards season, didn’t disappoint when he collected his golden statue for Best Actor for his role in Joker. After admitting to his own selfishness and cruel behaviour, Phoenix implored his audience to rethink the concept of sacrifice and to recognize the power of human creativity and ingenuity, offering, “I think that when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.”
Phoenix, who has been vegan since childhood, became increasingly vocal over the Oscar campaign season and worked behind-the-scenes to shift the Golden Globes, Critic’s Choice Awards, and Screen Actors Guild awards to plant-based menus.
Beyond awards speeches and attending rallies like the Youth Climate Strike in Los Angeles and Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays in Washington, D.C., Phoenix has joined forces with Extinction Rebellion and Amazon Watch to collaborate on a series of short films called Guardians of Life.
Produced by Mobilize Earth, Phoenix co-stars with Rosario Dawson, Matthew Modine, Oona Chaplin, Adria Arjona, Albert Hammond Jr., and Q’orianka Kilcher as ER doctors attempting to save Earth’s dying ecosystems.
The short film is the first in a twelve-part series campaign intended to raise alarm and engage the public in different aspects of the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Something Hollywood has neglected to do.
Hollywood has a moral duty to become Climate Emergency Storytellers.
While it’s thrilling and heartening to watch Hollywood stars like Joaquin Phoenix do their part in the fight for humanity’s survival, it is not nearly enough. “Hollywood has a moral duty to become Climate Emergency Storytellers,” says Extinction Rebellion US spokesperson Sophia Kianni. “Its members are in a unique position to influence millions of fans around the world. Never in history have so few had the power to affect so many.”
Hollywood has paid little attention to the Climate Crisis — from actively ignoring climate reality in their narratives to carrying on with business as usual carbon heavy production practices to continued dreams of endless, exponential growth. This can no longer continue if we want to sustain Earth’s ability to support human life. The time has come for Hollywood to Wake Up, Tell the Truth, and Act Now.
Fortunately, that gap is narrowing, says Dr. Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, who believes Phoenix’s involvement is a sign of Hollywood beginning to use its influence to Tell the Truth about the Climate and Ecological Crisis. She explains, “There’s still a gaping hole between how bad things are and the action being taken, but that gap is narrowing. Significant people are breaking ranks, to Tell the Truth and Act as if it is real.”
What we’re guilty of is an egocentric worldview — the belief that we’re the center of the universe.
Joaquin Phoenix
Perhaps all Hollywood needs is some good visual inspiration. On the same weekend as the Academy Awards, Extinction Rebellion’s Los Angeles Youth movement, in the company of Indigenous Leader Sônia Guajajara from APIB (Brazil’s indigenous movement), converged on the Hollywood sign, performing a “die-in” with the message WAKE UP. With this action, the XRLA Youth are calling on Hollywood to use their unique and influential global platform to Tell the Truth, and they demand Hollywood declare a Planetary Climate and Ecological Emergency.
Will Joaquin Phoenix’s and other Hollywood activists like Jane Fonda influence turn the tides?
As we continue to build a worldwide civil disobedience movement in the name of saving ourselves and all living things, we encourage all to join us and take part, regardless of the industry or community they belong to. But we implore Hollywood to understand the role it plays in our global world. As Kianni explained, “Never in history have so few had the power to affect so many.”
The time to Act is Now, Hollywood. There is no industry on a dead planet.
Joaquin Phoenix’s speech in whole, via The Hollywood Reporter:
[We have to] continue to use our voice for the voiceless. I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the distressing issues that we are facing collectively. I think at times we feel, or were made to feel, that we champion different causes, but for me, I see commonality. I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity.
I think that we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world, and many of us, what we’re guilty of is an egocentric worldview — the belief that we’re the center of the universe. We go into the natural world, and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then, we take her milk, that’s intended for her calf, and we put it in our coffee and our cereal, and I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think that we have to sacrifice something to give something up. But human beings, at our best, are so inventive and creative and ingenious, and I think that when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.
Now, I have been a scoundrel in my life. I’ve been selfish. I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with and ungrateful, but so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. And I think that’s when we’re at our best, when we support each other, not when we cancel each other out for past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow, when we educate each other, when we guide each other toward redemption. That is the best of community.
When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric. It said, ‘Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.’
Beautifully said, Joaquin. Congratulations on an award well-deserved for a stunning performance. Thank you for your words and your work.
