Joaquin Phoenix Thought His Fiancée Rooney Mara "Despised" Him When They First Met
Actors Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have been a couple since 2016.
The Joker star and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actress first met while filming Her back in 2012.
The pair confirmed their engagement in 2019.
Joaquin Phoenix, 45, continues to collect accolade after accolade — including a Golden Globe, BAFTA Film Award, and, perhaps, an Oscar — for his emotive performance in the Joker. As he accepts each award, his fiancée, accomplished actress Rooney Mara, 34, is always by his side. Her unending support is perhaps why Joaquin got so choked up while declaring "Rooney, I love you," during his Golden Globes acceptance speech in January.
While they keep their relationship very private, there are some details we know about them as a couple.
They first met on the set of Her in 2012, and Joaquin was smitten with Rooney from the very beginning, (although he thought she "despised" him). “She’s the only girl I ever looked up on the internet,” he told Vanity Fair. “We were just friends, email friends. I’d never done that. Never looked up a girl online.”
Their relationship stood strictly platonic for years after that. In fact, in 2014, Joaquin told David Letterman that he was engaged to his yoga instructor. This, however, turned out to be a lie.
“I think like my life’s so boring, and it seemed like something exciting to talk about, and I wanted the audience to like me," he told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. "They really like people getting married. I thought, I can say I’m getting married. I can get engaged again, if you like?”
Little did he know, he would be engaged again for real, soon after he reunited with Rooney for the movie Mary Magdalene in 2016.
"I was looking for something meaningful," Joaquin told The New York Times about his decision to play Jesus in the film. "I was looking for an experience. I was friends with Rooney.’"
According to W Magazine, Joaquin and Rooney began dating right after the film wrapped and made their official debut at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony. That year, the Times also reported that the couple was living together in Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.
In 2018, the pair continued to step out together from time to time, like when The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo star showed her support for Joaquin at a screening of Amazon Studios's You Were Never Really Here in April 2018. Even still, Us Weekly reported that despite being "so in love" they had no plans to get married.
"They think marriage is too mainstream," a "source" told the publication, while later adding, "They don’t really like to go out. They mainly just like to be with each other as the two of them. They’re in their own bubble.”
Assuming the "source" was valid, it appears the pair ended up changing their minds — in July 2019, Joaquin and Rooney confirmed that they were engaged. Since then, they haven't dished on any wedding plans and have kept a relatively low profile, only getting in front of the cameras for award ceremonies, film festivals, or animal rights demonstrations (the two are passionate activists and vegans).
On the occasion that we do get to see them together, their chemistry is undeniable, like when Joaquin couldn't stop gazing at his fiancé while posing on the Golden Globes red carpet.
We expect the same level of cuteness come the Oscars, whether Joaquin wins Best Actor or not.
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