How Joaquin Phoenix Disrupted Awards Season
The recalcitrant star—who won his first Oscar last night for <em>Joker</em>—turned industry recognition into an opportunity.
Joaquin Phoenix has never been a fan of awards season. The things that lesser humans crave—praise, ritualized recognition by a roomful of your peers, the opportunity to wear an outfit for one night that costs more than a car—seem to leave the actor cold. “I’m just saying that I think it’s bullshit,” Phoenix told ’s Elvis Mitchell , as critical appreciation and Oscars speculation for his role as the wretched Freddie Quell in Paul Thomas Anderson’s were peaking. “I but took home neither.)
