Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Sheen Arrested During Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Protest

After Joker star, Joaquin Phoenix addressed the importance of tackling climate change during this past week’s Golden Globes 2020, where he took home the award for Best Actor in a Drama – Motion Picture, the 45-year-old actor put his money where his mouth is as he marched alongside Jane Fonda to advocate for the issue once again at her last climate change rally for Fire Drill Fridays in Washington, D.C. on Friday afternoon.

According to TMZ, Phoenix and West Wing star, Martin Sheen were detained just before 1:30 p.m. ET along with a slew of other stars at the protest, which took place outside the U.S. capitol.

The final protest in a series helmed by Fonda focused on “the major banks and investors that finance fossil fuel exploration,” which demand “immediate action for a Green New Deal: cut carbon emissions in half by 2030, replace with clean, renewable energy, and no new exploration/drilling for fossil fuels.”

In video posted to Twitter of the event, Fonda shares that Phoenix, who is in the middle of awards season and recently picked up an honor from the Golden Globes this past Sunday, “came of his own volition” to the protest, along with Sheen and actress, Maggie Gyllennhaal.

“Something that oftentimes isn’t talked about in the environmental movement or in the conversation about climate change is that the meat and dairy industry is the third-leading cause of climate change,” Phoenix said. “I think sometimes we wonder, ‘What can we do in this fight against climate change?’ And there is something you can do today, right now, and tomorrow by making a choice about what you consume.”

His involvement with the protest comes off the heels of his remarks at the awards this past week about the planet’s climate crisis while accepting his award for Joker. Though he opened up by thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press “for recognizing and acknowledging the link between animal agriculture and climate change,” for their unique plant-based menu served to guests during the event, he acknowledged the “brushfires that were, and still are, causing significant harm across Australia.”

Stressing how thoughts and prayers sent to the country are a “beautiful gesture,” he added how there needed to be more done as a collective society. “It’s great to vote, but sometimes we have to take that responsibility on ourselves and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives,” he added. “I hope that we can do that. We don’t have to take private jets to Palm Springs for the awards sometimes, or back, please.”

Other stars who have been arrested since the start of the Fire Drill Friday protests have been Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston, Sally Field and Robert Kennedy Jr.

Photo credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images