Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Name Firstborn Son After River Phoenix

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Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, River
Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix named their firstborn son after River Phoenix.

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix have welcomed their first child into the world. The couple has named their boy after Phoenix’s late brother, River.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky broke the news during a recent Q&A at the 2020 Zurich Film Festival. He said Phoenix could not be in attendance to promote the documentary Gunda, which Phoenix executive produced, because of the birth of his son, River.

“He just got a baby, by the way, his name was...a beautiful son named River, so he cannot promote it now,” Kossakovsky said on stage.

The director also explained that Phoenix’s Oscar acceptance speech from earlier this year is what inspired him to reach out for help on the film.

In his acceptance speech, Phoenix discussed animal rights. He also mentioned his late brother: “When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric, he said, ‘Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.’”

Phoenix also spoke about River in an interview with 60 Minutes in January: "I feel like in virtually every movie that I made, there was a connection to River in some way. And I think that we've all felt his presence and guidance in our lives in numerous ways."

[Via]


About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.
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