Joaquin Phoenix Welcomes First Child With Rooney Mara, Named After Late Brother River Phoenix

Hollywood power couple Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have reportedly become first time parents. [...]

By Adam Barnhardt

Hollywood power couple Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have reportedly become first time parents. The news was revealed over the weekend by filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky, who was busy promoting his film Gunda at the Zurich Film Fesitval. During a Q&A following the screening, Kossakvsky revealed why Phoenix (an executive producer behind the film) wasn't able to attend — he and Mara welcomed their first child together last month. Better yet, the filmmaker revealed the pair chose to name their son River, after Phoenix's late brother.

River died of a drug dose in 1993 at the age of 23. He was the oldest sibling in the Phoenix family, which includes actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer.

The pair first met on the set of Her and have since starred in three additional movies together — Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, Dominion, and Mary Magdalene. They also happen to two of this generation's most accomplished actors; Phoenix has received four Oscar nominations, winning his first earlier this year for the eponymous role in Todd Phillips' Joker. Mara has been nominated for two Oscars, once for Best Actress in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Best Supporting Actress in Carol (2016).

Phoenix had previously been in the news this month for reportedly being offered a whopping $50 million to star in two sequels to Joker. The initial reporting came from The Mirror and said Phoenix has changed his tune from committing to a one-off shot to turning it into a trilogy, something Warner Brothers will certainly greenlight after Phillips' first feature become one of the most profitable comic book features ever created.

Around this time last year, Phillips himself revealed he wasn't entirely sure if he'd return for sequels, though he did confirm talks had happen due to the movie's box office success.

"When a movie does $1 billion and cost $60 million to make, of course it comes up," Phillips said. "But Joaquin and I haven't really decided on it. We're open. I mean, I'd love to work with him on anything, quite frankly. So who knows? But it would have to have a real thematic resonance the way this one did, ultimately being about childhood trauma and the lack of love, and the loss of empathy. All those things are really what made this movie work for us, so we'd have to have something that had an equal thematic resonance."

The Joker star had recently

Cover photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

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