We think it’s safe to assume that Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix has turned his back on those outlandish aspirations to become the world’s next bearded rap star.
Clean-shaven and speaking coherently, the sometimes-unstable star has re-emerged from self-imposed exile to lend his famous face and voice to a new PSA for PETA. Exotic animals—including snakes, lizards, alligators, and crocodiles—are hunted or raised and killed for their skins all across U.S., Africa, and Asia. Joaquin is backing the animal rights group’s efforts to raise awareness of the cruelty behind the exotic-skins industry that produces thousands of designer belts, footwear, and handbags each year.
“Did you know that mother snakes keep their eggs warm by wrapping their bodies around the eggs and then shivering to generate heat?” narrator Phoenix says in the video short, which debued today on PETA.org. “Exotic animals are mostly unknown to us, and so is what they suffer before being turned into belts and bags.”