Joaquin Phoenix Tenderly Adjusts Rooney Mara’s Dress During Rare Red Carpet Date at Academy Museum Gala.Linh

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara‘s red carpet date nights might be rare — but they’re always sweet!

The couple stepped out at the Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Oct. 19, and not only did the A-list couple look absolutely dashing in their designer duds, but they shared a moment of affection on the carpet that left fans swooning.

While Mara, 39, was posing for photos in her sheer vintage 1996 Givenchy couture dress, Phoenix, 49, couldn’t help but to do everything he could to make sure she looked her best — so he stepped in to fluff out her train and lay it out perfectly behind her.

Variety captured a video of the moment on the red carpet. As Phoenix crouches behind Mara to fix her train, she continues to pose before laughing and softly shooing him away to pose for his own photos.

Of course, photographers also captured the moment, and the two look more than happy to be on the red carpet together, sharing this rare moment of outward affection for the cameras.

The couple’s appearance at the star-studded event comes after Mara supported her fiancé at the end of September at the Los Angeles premiere of Joker: Folie á Deux, though the two didn’t pose for photos together on the red carpet. The two walked the carpet at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater separately — Mara wore an all-black dress to the premiere, while Phoenix was seen wearing a black suit and white shirt as he posed for photos with Lady Gaga, his costar in the movie.

Phoenix and Mara, who rarely appear together in public, originally met on the set of their 2013 movie Her, a film in which they portrayed ex-spouses. Phoenix famously told Vanity Fair in 2019 that he thought Mara did not like him at first, before realizing she was just shy.

The pair worked together again on the 2018 movies Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot and Mary Magdalene and made their first public appearance as a couple at the closing ceremonies for the Cannes Film Festival in May 2017.

The couple shares two children, a son River, whom they welcomed in 2020 and named after Phoenix’s brother who died in 1993, and a second child, whose birth they did not announce.