Joaquin Phoenix has been vegan since early childhood. He and his family adopted a vegan lifestyle back in 1977 after witnessing fishermen violently killing fish on a boat.
“They were catching fish, and I guess to stun them they were throwing them against the side of the boat,” he told Collider in 2018. “I just had a profound strong reaction. It felt like a real injustice. It wasn’t just me, it was my siblings, all of my siblings, except for the youngest, Summer, she wasn’t born.”
“We literally screamed at our parents and said, ‘We are never going to eat meat again,’” he recalled in an interview with Cover Media in 2013. “It was undeniable that it was brutal, barbaric, and horrible for us.”
As his acting career flourished, Phoenix became an outspoken animal rights activist.
The actor has also partnered with PETA and appeared in the campaign “We Are All Animals” to promote veganism.
“When we look at the world through another animal’s eyes, we see that inside we’re all the same—and that we all deserve to live free from suffering,” he said in the PETA campaign.
Joaquin Phoenix used ‘Joker’ Oscar win to champion veganism
Attends the Santa Monica International Film Festival closing night screening of “The Animal People” at AMC Broadway 4 on November 30, 2019 in Santa Monica – @Getty
In February 2020, Phoenix won the Best Actor Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards.
“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,” Joaquin said. “And then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”
He rescued a calf and its mother from a slaughterhouse
March 05, 2006 – @Getty
The day after winning an Oscar, Phoenix rescued a mother cow and her newborn calf from a slaughterhouse in LA and brought them to the Farm Sanctuary.
He named the cow Liberty and her daughter, Indigo.
“My hope is, as we watch baby Indigo grow up with her mom Liberty at Farm Sanctuary, that we’ll always remember that friendships can emerge in the most unexpected places; and no matter our differences, kindness and compassion should rule everything around us,” the Joker star confessed at the time.
Will River be vegan?
In 2020, Phoenix and partner Rooney Mara welcomed their son River.
Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara attend The Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 in Los Angeles – @Getty
River is the name of Joaquin’s late brother, who passed away in 1993 outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood from a drug overdose.
“I would hope that [he is vegan], but I’m not going to impose my belief on my child,” Phoenix said in a 2021 interview about his son. Joaquin also added that he won’t read his child books about farm animals.
“I’m not going to indoctrinate him with the idea that McDonald’s have a Happy Meal because there’s nothing fucking happy about that meal,” the American actor revealed about fast food.
In the summer of 2024, Joaquin and Mara welcomed their second baby to the world.
Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix attend Michael Muller’s HEAVEN, presented by The Art of Elysium, on January 5, 2019 in Los Angeles – @Getty
Rooney Mara has been vegan since around 2011.
The actress began as a vegetarian in childhood and transitioned fully to veganism in adulthood.
“Frozen yogurt was one of the hardest things to give up when I went vegan,” Mara confessed in 2018.
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