Joaquin Phoenix felt Adam Driver should have scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award instead of him on Sunday (19.01.20)
Joaquin Phoenix
The 45-year-old actor won the coveted honour for his role in 'Joker' and used his acceptance speech to sing the praises of his fellow nominees, Christian Bale ('Ford v Ferrari'), Leonardo DiCaprio ('Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'), Adam Driver ('Marriage Story'), and Taron Egerton ('Rocketman').
Speaking on stage at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, Joaquin admitted he felt "honoured" to be a part of the acting community and then said: "I'd like to talk a little bit about my fellow nominees.
"Going to auditions, I'd get the final callback and there would always be two other guys I was against and we'd always lose to this one kid. No actor would ever say his name cos it was too much but every casting director would whisper 'It's Leonardo'.
"Leo, you've been an inspiration to me and so many other people for 25 years, thank you very, very much.
"Christian, you commit to your roles in ways I could only dream of. You never turn in a bad performance, it's infuriating, I wish you'd suck just one time, it would be great.
"Adam, I've been watching you the last few years and you've been turning in these beautiful, nuanced, incredible profound performances. I'm so moved by you and you were devastaing in this film, you should be here.
"Taron, I'm so happy for you, you're so beautiful in this movie and I'm so happy for you and I can't wait to see what else you do."
Joaquin ended his speech with praise for the late Heath Ledger, who portrayed 'The Joker' in 'The Dark Knight'.
He said: "I'm standing here on the shoulders of my favourite actor, Heath Ledger, so thank you and goodnight."
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