Gratitude despite hardship. Gratitude despite pain.
Gratitude despite fear and doubt. Because one day your tears will dry.
One day, things will turn around. One day success will be the reality.
If you find within yourself the strength to carry on.
As did others before you. Joaquin Phoenix is one of the most talented
and recognized actors of his generation. But his road to success was paved with heartbreak,
poverty, and loss. When he was just a child, his family was part
of a strange cult, and as a part of their practice, they traveled through Latin America
in extremely precarious conditions to preach. Though they left it as soon as they discovered
nefarious practices, such an experience was bound to affect him and his siblings.
Back in the United States, things continued to be difficult. For a time, the family comprised
of two parents and five children lived in a one-bedroom apartment. When things got worse,
they even spent some time living in a car. When Joaquin and his brother River began acting,
things got a little better. But they still weren’t high-profile enough to live a really
prosperous life. Things seemed to be good for a while, but
Joaquin would still experience one of the most traumatic events of his life.
When he was 19, he witnessed the death of his brother River due to an overdose. River
was just 23 years old. In desperate grief, he removed himself from
acting for a whole year to deal with his feelings. But his purpose was greater than any pain.
He knew what he wanted to do. And he knew that achieving success as an actor was also
a homage to his brother. From then on, his career moved forward. He
earned critical acclaim and award nominations. But still, darkness lurked.
After filming Walk the Line, a movie about Johnny Cash’s life, Joaquin started having
problems with alcohol, just like the singer he portrayed onscreen.
Through his turmoil, he found the strength to overcome his difficulties. He worked on
himself and took his career to stellar heights. And achieved the greatest honors of all.
Joaquin Phoenix: I feel overwhelmed with emotion. So just thinking about all the people that
had such a profound influence on me throughout my career. The people you don't know much.
There was a man named Joe Therm who was the head of casting at NBC and my mother was his
secretary and he is the first man to introduce me to my agent, a woman named Iris Burton.
Amazing old agent. And I'm indebted to all of them so much. They changed my career and
my life, has been my life, I've been acting since I was eight. But mostly when I was watching
those clips, I thought about my family. My sisters Rain and Liberty and Summer who are
still my best friends. I don't talk to them or see them. But yeah I started to be good
for the speech to say that. And when I was 15 or 16 my brother River came home from work
and he had a VHS copy of a movie called Raging Bull. And he sat me down he made me watch
it and the next day he woke me up and he made me watch it again and he said you're gonna
start acting again, this is what you're gonna do. And he didn't ask me he just told me and
I am indebted to him for that because acting has given me such an incredible life. And
I want to also acknowledge my dad John Lee he's the baddest motherfucker I ever met.
And he instilled in me a great work ethic. And Todd I can literally hear your eyes rolling.
So, Todd Philips, the director is here and I know that his eyes are rolling right now.
I might have faltered slightly in my work ethic with him but for all the other movies
I had a great work ethic. But mostly I want to thank my mother, Heart because she's a
constant source of inspiration and she taught me amazing values and principles that have
guided me my whole career and everything that I do is for her, and I love you madly.
Be grateful for the people in your life. Be grateful to be alive. This life is an opportunity
to do more with yourself. And then to do more about the world.
Use your voice to reach back to others. The world is divided. People are lost. When
you find the strength to move forward, you can share it with others.
You can become an inspiration. When Joaquin received an Oscar for Joker,
he didn’t make this achievement just about himself.
He used it to share the beauty people can create if they put selfishness aside.
And above all else, he remained grateful. Because after all he went through, he could
have fallen into the abyss. But instead, he climbed back to the top and
change his life, along with the ones of all the people around him.
Joaquin Phoenix: I’m so full of gratitude right now. And I do not feel elevated above
any of my fellow nominees or anyone in this room because we share the same love that,
the love of film. And this form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life.
I don't know what I'd be without it. But I think the greatest gift that it's given me
and many of us in this room is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless. I've been
thinking a lot about some of the distressing issues that we are facing collectively and
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.
Joaquin Phoenix: 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 were unmistakable and then we take her milk that's
intended for a 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, that 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.
Joaquin Phoenix: I've 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 towards redemption that is the
best of humanity. I just, when he was up, was when he was 17 my brother wrote over this
lyric. He said run to the rescue with love and peace will follow. Thank you.