Jane Unchained News/FacebookHe’s sweeping awards season with wins for his performance as the Joker. However, Joaquin Phoenix has other priorities – namely, standing up for animal rights.
The 45-year-old star recently picked up the SAG Best Actor award for his role as the Clown Prince of Crime. After delivering a fantastic speech, there were more pressing matters at hand than continuing the celebrations.
Phoenix left the ceremony to attend a vigil for pigs outside a meat processing plant just 15 minutes from the Shrine Auditorium in LA.
Check out the video of Phoenix speaking at the vigil below:
While the actor briefly stopped into People magazine’s official after-party, where he caught up with other winners from the night such as Brad Pitt, he soon made his way to Farmer John Clougherty Packing Co. – still dressed in his tuxedo.
During the event – organised by Los Angeles Animal Save – Phoenix comforted the animals (which were on their way to slaughter) alongside CNN anchor-turned-animal rights activist Jane Velez-Mitchell, appearing on her media platform Jane Unchained News.
Discussing why he attended the vigil in a Facebook video, the actor said:
Most people don’t really know of the torture and murder in the meat and dairy industry. I’ve seen it for what it is, so I have to be here. We have moral obligations to talk about it and expose it for what it really is. We are so indoctrinated with these happy images of animals on farms, on the covers of meat containers, at restaurants and it’s a lie.
I think people need to know the truth and we have an obligation to do that. Those of us that have seen it for what it really is, we have an obligation to expose it, so I have to be here.
Phoenix is well known for keeping a relatively low profile in the movie world, instead focusing his efforts in other areas he sees to be important, such as attending vigils and getting the Golden Globes to roll out a vegan menu.
Jean Davis, founder of Los Angeles Animal Save, said: ‘Joaquin’s regular attendance at our vigils in LA has inspired activists both locally and globally. We are so grateful for his voice. All over the world, activists are bearing witness to animals bound for slaughter and waking up the world to their plight.’
You can watch the full video from Jane Unchained News below:
JOAQUIN PHOENIX VISITS PIGS ABOUT TO DIE AFTER WINNING SAG AWARD!
MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS FREE TO USE THIS VIDEO. NO NEED TO GET SPECIAL PERMISSION. BABIES NOT BACON! #JaneUnChained #LIVE in Los Angeles, CA with Golden Globes/ Critics' Choice Awards/ Screen Actors Guild Awards’ Best Actor Award winner Joaquin Phoenix, for his role in the Warner Bros. Entertainment film “The Joker,” along with activists, families and first timers lining up to give water as young pigs are trucked in to meet their deaths at this downtown Los Angeles slaughterhouse. The trucks keep rolling in tonight reportedly filled with baby pigs, hundreds in an overflow waiting yard. “We see you!” The Save Movement is a global network of groups who bare witness as farmed animals are en route to slaughter and offer water and a collective energy of kindness. This local pig vigil, Los Angeles Animal Save, is organized by activist and past American Idol finalist Amy Jean Davis, photographer Robert Sud “Bobby,” activist Sergio Garcia and Earthlings’ Director Shaun Monson. Los Angeles Climate Save and other Save groups around the world are focused on raising awareness about the suffering of farmed animals, while building a grassroots animal justice movement to combat animal suffering and climate change! #LAanimalsave We invite on any representative from this slaughterhouse to dialog with Jane Velez-Mitchell regarding this coverage. Reporting by Los Angeles based JaneUnChained News Contributor Renée Marinkovich, Content Editor Paige Parsons Roache, for JaneUnChained.com #JoaquinPhoenix #TheSaveMovement
Posted by Jane Unchained News on Sunday, January 19, 2020
Meanwhile, back in the film world, Phoenix is the favourite to take home the Oscar next month after his barnstorming stream of victories across awards season – we’ll see if he wins at the Academy Awards on February 9.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.