The Mara-Phoenix baby joins a family of interesting baby-namers and self-namers. And I am indebted to him for that because acting has given me such an incredible life.” 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. “And the next day he woke me up, and he made me watch it again. “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,” Phoenix said in a speech at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Gala in 2019. In the past year, during interviews to promote Joker and during his Oscar acceptance speech, the actor spoke more and more about River’s impact on him. Joaquin was just 19 when his brother died of an accidental drug overdose. Joaquin Phoenix named his new baby boy River. Judging by Twitter, I’m sure I speak for a lot of Gen Xers when I say that I really, really hope this is true. “He just got a baby, by the way, his name was … a beautiful son called River, so he cannot promote it now,” Kossakovsky said.
Mara and Phoenix have reportedly named their son River Phoenix, according to a rather roundabout news source: Victor Kossakovsky, the director of the documentary Gunda, which Joaquin Phoenix co-produced, answering a Q&A after a screening at the Zurich Film Festival.
