How Joaquin Phoenix Celebrated His Oscar Win With Rooney Mara After The Ceremony

Sunday was a big night for Joaquin Phoenix, who took home the Oscar for best performance by an actor in a leading role for playing Arthur Fleck in “Joker.” To celebrate his victory, Phoenix and his fiancée, actress Rooney Mara, enjoyed some time together when the night began to die down.

Phoenix and Mara attended the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California, according to The Telegraph. Earlier in the night, it is reported the first-time Oscar winner asked a production assistant: “Got any alcohol?” The PA then delivered a bottle of champagne to Phoenix, who apparently drank it very fast.

At the party, the couple bumped elbows with their friend and fellow Academy Award winner Rami Malek. Phoenix was later seen walking around the party by himself, holding a bottle of water.

Later, after Phoenix and Mara had left the Oscar party, the vegan couple shared a carry-out box of vegan hamburgers from Monty’s Good Burger in Central Los Angeles, smiles lighting up their faces -- Phoenix’s Oscar sat casually between them.

Phoenix isn’t shy about his veganism. In fact, the actor used his Oscar speech as an opportunity to express his passion for animal rights and environmental issues, along with issues of inequality.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the distressing issues that we are facing collectively,” Phoenix said in his acceptance speech. “I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world.”

Phoenix’s Oscar speech called out the “egocentric worldview" of society, where people think they are the “center" of the universe, exploiting nature and those who are less fortunate or abled with impunity. He then expressed how “inventive” and ingenious humans can be, saying that we can develop systems that beneficially invoke change.

Phoenix encompassed his point by sharing something his late older brother, River Phoenix, wrote when he was 17 years old: “Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.”