Article by Eric Lee
Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix has taken home the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) award for Outstanding Male Actor.
It seems that not a week goes by without Joker or Phoenix winning a new award. This time Phoenix was honored by the 26th annual SAG awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture. The SAG awards specifically focuses on recognizing actors from across film and television. In this case, Phoenix continues to receive more accolades for his role as Arthur Fleck.
A Gracious Winner
When receiving his award, Phoenix made a point to give a shout-out to fellow nominees. Phoenix praised Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s Leonardo DiCaprio, Marriage Story‘s Adam Driver and Rocketman‘s Taron Egerton. Amusingly, he even beat Ford v Ferrari‘s Christian Bale, making it one of the few times the Joker has defeated Batman.
However, the most touching part of Phoenix’s acceptance speech is his special shout-out to Heath Ledger.
“Really, I’m standing here on the shoulders of my favorite actor, Heath Ledger,” Phoenix said.
Ledger, of course, took everybody by storm with his electric performance as the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. He was also the first actor to win an Academy Award for the character. Since then, Phoenix is following and may also win an Academy Award for playing the same character.
Check out Phoenix’s full SAG acceptance speech below.
Joker is now available for Digital Download, DVD and Blu-Ray.
