Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix reportedly welcome first baby

Rooney Mara and  Joaquin Phoenix  reportedly welcome first child. The baby’s name pays tribute to late brother River Phoenix, director Victor Kossakovskys said at the Zurich Film Festival this weekend.

Mara and Phoenix, met while filming Spike Jonze‘s Her in 2013 and went on to film Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Dominion, and Mary Magdalene together. The couple got engaged in 2019. Rumors that Mara was pregnant started in May.

Kossakovsky broke the news during a Q&A session after a screening of his film Gunda, reports Just Jared. Phoenix is an executive producer on the movie. Gunda, master filmmaker Kossakovsky reminds us that we share our planet with billions of other animals. Through encounters with a mother sow (the eponymous Gunda), two ingenious cows, and a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken, Kossakovsky movingly recalibrates our moral universe, reminding us of the inherent value of life and the mystery of all animal consciousness, including our own.