Joaquin Phoenix Gave Heath Ledger A Nice Shout In His Emotional SAG Awards Speech

From Esquire

The latest stop on Joaquin Phoenix's valedictory tour of the world's awards shows was was the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) Awards last night, where he took the chance to pay tribute to the previous incumbent of the Joker's face paint and cackle.

"Really, I'm standing here on the shoulders of my favourite actor, Heath Ledger," Phoenix said. "So thank you, and goodnight."

Only a quick nod, but an important one – Phoenix has rarely been drawn on comparisons between his Arthur Fleck and Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight back in 2008. That little sign-off was a bit of a contrast to the rest of the speech, in which Phoenix channelled hyuk-some chat show host Murray Franklin.

"When I started acting again, and going to auditions, I'd always get to the final callback," he said. "There would always be two other guys that I'd be up against, and we'd always lose to this one kid. No actor would ever say his name because it was too much, but every casting director would whisper: 'It's Leonardo, it's Leonardo.' Who is this Leonardo?"

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