“Joker” star Joaquin Phoenix made a plea to viewers and his celebrity colleagues to take an active role in addressing “climate change” in his Best Actor acceptance speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, stressing that “sacrifices” must be made to tackle the issue.
And now, it seems, Phoenix is following his own advice.
Sort of.
Phoenix, with the help of designer Stella McCartney, will, in the service of saving the planet, wear the same designer tuxedo to all of this season’s awards shows. And for that, McCartney is hailing Phoenix as a climate change hero.
In his acceptance speech on Sunday, Phoenix became emotional about climate change, imploring the audience to take action immediately.
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to rock the boat. But the boat is f***ing rocked,” he said, referencing the ongoing brushfire crisis in Australia, which he claimed was the result of climate change (but, in fact, appears to be largely the result of arsonists). “It’s really nice that so many people have sent their well wishes to Australia but we have to do more than that.”
“Hopefully, we can be unified and actually make some changes. It’s great to vote, but sometimes we have to take that responsibility on ourselves and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives. We don’t have to take private jets to Palm Springs for the awards,” Phoenix added.
Outlets immediately questioned whether Phoenix was living up to his own standards. Thankfully, designer Stella McCartney was able to fill in the blanks.
“This man is a winner… wearing custom Stella because he chooses to make choices for the future of the planet. He has also chosen to wear this same Tux for the entire award season to reduce waste. I am proud to join forces with you… x Stella,” she tweeted.
Because Phoenix is expected to clean up this awards season, he may actually end up wearing that tuxedo half a dozen times.
Well, okay. For starters, a Stella McCartney tuxedo, off the rack, will run the average consumer around $2,000 (a double-breasted version is nearly $2,000 just for the jacket). If you’re lucky, you might be able to snag your own version of Joaquin Phoenix’s tuxedo for a mere $580 per piece given that the designer is currently running a late-winter sale. That might seem like a great deal to a celebrity, but most Americans, who are among those Phoenix was imploring to address the climate crisis, $2,000 could buy an entire wardobe of clothes.
If you purchase that wardrobe second-hand, you can put a pretty big dent in waste reduction. If you put that money towards making your home more energy efficient, the dent might be even bigger.
In fairness to Phoenix, at least he is, in fact, doing something, which can’t be said for many of his environmentally conscious colleagues. After Phoenix, the most outspoken activist, Leonardo DiCaprio, is frequently considered a “climate hypocrite,” even by top anti-climate change agitators like Greta Thunberg, for his habit of chartering private planes to travel — even to climate change conferences.