Joaquin Phoenix deserves more than just an Oscar

At the 2020 Oscar's event held on February 9, many incredible talents and faces were awarded titles for their hard work in cinema. During the ceremony, it was clear that these winners were given an exceptionally short amount of time this year to present their speech to the 29.6M viewers. Some, like Brad Pitt, who won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, shed light on his quick amount of speech time by saying "they told me I only have 45 seconds up here" before he quickly discussed his views on the current political climate of the United States. Despite the narrowly allotted time given to these winners, many others like Brad Pitt still wanted to use their voice to speak to those out there watching.

Joaquin Phoenix, winner of the 2020 Best Male Actor role for his part as the Joker in Joker, stole the show with his brilliantly reasonable call to action to each of us on planet Earth. Phoenix discussed animal rights and how they should be in our circle of moral concern. His speech was powerful, intelligent, and full of genuine yearning for not only the animals we share our space with but for the humans too that don't find this topic to be important.



Phoenix harps on the fact that as actors and performers in the public eye, they should be using their presence to spread awareness about crucial topics and so good for our planet and those on it who need the help. To put his claims to the test, Phoenix has been giving different call-to-action speeches at award ceremonies recently and has covered a great variety of issues such as climate change at the Golden Globes and systemic racism in the acting community at the BAFTA awards just one week prior to the Oscar's.

I think what Phoenix is doing is absolutely fantastic and blatantly overdo in the entertainment industry. Some other actors, like Lady Gaga and Oprah, do use their voice to preach wellness and discuss important issues to the public eye, but Phoenix making it clear that more need to be doing it and they need to start now is beautiful and necessary for this new decade. His ideas are sharp and his words are well-calculated, so I am very happy to be seeing this taking place this year. To read more about Phoenix's specific speech at the 2020 Oscar's, click here.