Joaquin Phoenix wins Best Actor | 92nd Oscars (2020)

winning an Oscar ages you hello there thank you for having me back it's such a pleasure to be here last year was the best night of my husband's life he actually says that and I've given birth three times so I I hope you're all having as good a time as he did and decided um I don't want to keep you from the bar much longer I know I'm supposed to talk about acting and find some clever thread connecting these performances but their beauty and brilliance surely lies in the fact that there isn't one and I'm

sorry that all these men can't win here are the nominees for performance by an actor in a leading role Antonio Banderas Payne and Hillary [Applause] Leonardo DiCaprio once upon a time in Hollywood Adam driver marriage story [Applause] Joaquin Phoenix Joker jonathan pryce the two popes [Applause] and the Oscar goes to Joaquin Phoenix toca this is the first Oscar and fourth nomination for Joaquin Phoenix [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I gotta move so much data too right now uh and I do not feel elevated above any 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 I think that we've become very disconnected from the natural world and many of us what were guilty of is an egocentric worldview the belief that were 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 are 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 dieting principles we can create develop and implement systems

of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment now I've been 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 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 um when you when he was up when he 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 [Applause]