Zoe Saldaña wins first Oscar, sweeping awards season as best supporting actress in ‘Emilia Pérez’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
“Mami! Mami!” a tearful Saldaña said. “My mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honor. Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women. My fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered to me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward.”
Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who told Saldaña that she “took us on a journey. One that made us question the very limits we put on ourselves. And then you showed us exactly how to break them. You are fearless, and it is so inspiring to watch.”
The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña won her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins at the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“My grandmother came to this country in 1961. I am a proud child of immigrant parents. With dreams and dignity and hard working hands,” Saldaña said. “And I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award. And I know I will not be the last.”
Saldaña, a front-runner in the category, was among a roster of actors also nominated for the first time, including Monica Barbaro in “A Complete Unknown,” Ariana Grande in “Wicked,” and Isabella Rossellini in “Conclave.” Felicity Jones, nominated for her role in “The Brutalist,” was previously nominated in 2015.
“I think it’s every time I went after a part and didn’t get,” she said backstage of the moments she felt most challenged. “If I don’t act and if I don’t do my art then who am I? It’s about realizing that it’s not about the win. When you learn to let that go, it is about the work day in and day out, the day that you do win, you just have a deeper appreciation for it and you feel that you have appreciated every experience and every moment that has led you here.”
In “Emilia Pérez,” Saldaña played the down-on-her-luck lawyer Rita Castro, hired by a Mexican drug lord to help facilitate gender-affirming surgery. That drug lord becomes Emilia Pérez, played by best actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Oscar.
“The fact that I am getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted,” Saldaña noted.
Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language narco-musical had a leading 13 nominations heading into the Oscars, but an already contentious film generated even more controversy after old offensive tweets by Gascón surfaced. The film also received backlash for its depiction of Mexican culture.
“For me the heart of this movie was not Mexico, we weren’t making a film about a country, we were making a film about four woman,” said Saldaña, who apologized to a Mexican journalist backstage over the film’s depiction of Mexico — but said she disagreed that the film was about the country.
“These women are still very universal women, but are struggling everyday. They’re trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find their most authentic voices, so I would stand with that. I’m also always open to sit down with all my Mexican brothers and sisters and with love and respect have a great conversation on how ‘Emilia Pérez’ could have been better,” she said.
Saldaña, whose role highlights her range through song and dance, was not spared from critique as some claimed she was in the wrong category, with more screen time than Gascón.
An emotional Saldaña last week, and in previous acceptance speeches, credited “Emilia Pérez” with being a film about identity and love.
“I’ve never been questioned about where I come from or judged by how I speak or what my pronouns are. I believe that everybody has the right to be who they are and ‘Emilia Perez’ is about truth and is about love,” she said in accepting the award for best actress in a supporting role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “I think that us as actors, now more than ever before, we really have to tell stories that are beautiful and thought-provoking and live within the spectrum of artistic freedom.”
Saldaña, whose career spans nearly 25 years, is known for her roles in major franchises such as “Star Trek” as Uhura, “Avatar” as Na'vi princess Neytiri, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gamora, the green-complexioned alien assassin-turned-Guardian of the Galaxy.
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Associated Press journalist Berenice Bautista contributed reporting. For more coverage of the Oscars, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.
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