Joaquin Phoenix And Rooney Mara Naming Their Son River Is Making Fans Emotional

It’s been a bad year for almost everyone, but not Joaquin Phoenix.

The actor won his first Academy Award for his performance in Joker in February, and he and his fiancée, fellow Oscar nominee Rooney Mara, also welcomed a baby boy into the world. The announcement was made by Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky, who worked with Phoenix on the documentary Gunda, at the 2020 Zurich Film Festival. “He just got a baby by the way,” the director said on Sunday. “A beautiful son called River.”

River is named after Joaquin’s brother, who died of a drug overdose in 1993 at 23 years old. He was also a talented actor, appearing in critically acclaimed hits like Stand by Me, My Own Private Idaho, and Running on Empty, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination; River also played young Indiana in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

“And through my brother and his understanding and appreciation of that kind of acting I think it just awakened something in me and I suddenly could see it through his eyes,” Joaquin told Anderson Cooper earlier this year. He also quoted one of River’s lyrics during his Oscar acceptance speech: “Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.” No wonder people are getting emotional about Joaquin and Rooney baby’s name.

(Via the Guardian)