LOS ANGELES (AP) — Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for greatest supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already completed awards season Sunday.
Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner within the class, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph.
The win provides to a set of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña received her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins on the British Academy Movie Awards, the Critics Alternative Awards and Display Actors Guild Awards.
Saldaña, a front-runner within the class, was amongst a roster of actors additionally nominated for the primary time, together with Monica Barbaro in “A Complete Unknown,” Ariana Grande in “Wicked,” and Isabella Rossellini in “Conclave.” Felicity Jones, nominated for her position in “The Brutalist,” was beforehand nominated in 2015.
In “Emilia Pérez,” Saldaña performed the down-on-her-luck lawyer Rita Castro, employed by a Mexican drug lord to assist facilitate gender-affirming surgical procedure. That drug lord turns into Emilia Pérez, performed by greatest actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón, the primary overtly transgender actor nominated for an Oscar.
Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language narco-musical had a number one 13 nominations heading into the Oscars, however an already contentious movie generated much more controversy after previous offensive tweets by Gascón surfaced. The movie additionally obtained backlash for its depiction of Mexican tradition.
Saldaña, whose position highlights her vary by way of music and dance, was not spared from critique as some claimed she was within the incorrect class, with extra display screen time than Gascón.
An emotional Saldaña final week, and in earlier acceptance speeches, credited “Emilia Pérez” with being a movie about id 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 mentioned in accepting the award for greatest actress in a supporting position on the Display 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 profession spans practically 25 years, is thought for her roles in main franchises reminiscent of “Star Trek” as Uhura, “Avatar” as Na’vi princess Neytiri, and within the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gamora, the green-complexioned alien assassin-turned-Guardian of the Galaxy.
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