Joaquin Phoenix Honors Heath Ledger at SAG Awards

One beloved Joker honored another at the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards, as Joaquin Phoenix dedicated his big win to the late, great Heath Ledger. For his performance as Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips’ Joker, Phoenix managed to snag the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role. It is an incredible accomplishment for Phoenix, as the win meant beating out other great talents like Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari), Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Adam Driver (Marriage Story), and Taron Egerton (Rocketman).

In his acceptance speech, Phoenix began by speaking about how grateful he was to be on the stage to accept the prestigious honor. Rather than spending too much time talking about himself, however, Phoenix quickly moved on to acknowledge his fellow nominees and their work. The Joker star goes on to praise all four other actors, saying some very kind words about each one of their performances. “You never turn in a bad performance, it’s infuriating,” Phoenix jokingly told Bale. “I wish you would, one time, just suck once.”

Before closing out his speech to depart the stage, Phoenix also made sure to acknowledge one more actor, who unfortunately couldn’t be there at the SAG Awards with Hollywood’s other biggest names. As Heath Ledger famously portrayed the Joker in The Dark Knight with an award-winning performance of his own, Phoenix made sure to honor him in a touching way. “Really, I’m standing here on the shoulders of my favorite actor, Heath Ledger, so thank you, and good night,” Phoenix said, bringing about cheers and applause from those in the crowd.

It was truly an awesome moment, and you can watch the full acceptance speech from Phoenix and his tribute paid to Ledger below!

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