Joaquin Phoenix paid tribute to his brother River during a heartfelt acceptance speech at Toronto’s film festival.
The actor, who has been praised for his performance in new film Joker, was receiving the TIFF Tribute Actor Award at this year’s event when he made a rare mention of his older brother, the actor and musician who died from a drug overdose in 1993.
“When I was 15 or 16, my brother River came home from work and he had a VHS copy of a movie called ‘Raging Bull’ and he sat me down and made me watch it,” he said.
“And the next day he woke me up, and he made me watch it again. And he said, ‘You’re going to start acting again, this is what you’re going to do.’ He didn’t ask me, he told me.”
He said he was “indebted to” River for leading him to the profession that has given him “such an incredible life”.
Phoenix added: “I feel overwhelmed with emotion, because I’m just thinking about all the people that had such a profound influence on me.”
The actor is generating Oscar buzz for Joker, which won Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion at the weekend. Previous winners include Best Picture recipient The Shape of Water.
River Phoenix died at the age of 23 outside Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room.
