Joaquin Phoenix Had Pretty Touching Words for Heath Ledger in His SAG Acceptance Speech

Joaquin Phoenix never seemed like the type to care about awards, but here we are. The actor won the 2020 Best Actor Award for The Joker at last night’s SAG Awards. Very well-deserved.

Phoenix acknowledged all the other nominees including Christian Bale for Ford v Ferrari, Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Adam Driver in Marriage Story and Taron Egerton in Rocketman in his speech.

"I'm standing here on the shoulders of my favorite actor Heath Ledger." Joaquin Phoenix thanks the late #DarkKnight star while accepting the #SAGAwards statue for #Joker https://t.co/tD2ozkArqi pic.twitter.com/k9q8hwFFrM

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 20, 2020

The best part was his shout out to Heath Ledger at the end of his speech.

And really I’m standing here on the shoulders of my favorite actor, Heath Ledger.

It’s sad to think about what Heath Ledger could’ve become if he had lived. We’re reminded of his presence whenever Michelle Williams is on stage or in movies. It’s ironic too, since Williams supposedly never wants to bring up Ledger, so his memory won’t be sullied, yet she’s rumored to be a conniving, scheming person. Meaning she fits right into Hollywood.

In his speech, Phoenix also recounted how every actor in Hollywood would always lose roles to Leonardo DiCaprio.

When I started acting again, going to auditions I’d always get to like the final callback and I think many people know what that’s like. And there would always be like two other guys that I was up against them. And we’d always lose to this one kid. And no actor would ever say his name because it was like too much.

But every casting director would whisper, “It’s Leonardo, it’s Leonardo.” Who is this Leonardo?

Well, now DiCaprio’s over 40, so you won’t be losing roles to him anymore.