Zoe Saldana earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Perez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
“Mommy! Mommy!” a tearful Saldana said. “My mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honour. 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.”
Saldana accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldana 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.
Saldana, 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.
In “Emilia Perez,” Saldana 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 Perez, played by best actress nominee Karla Sofia Gascon, the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Oscar.
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 Gascon surfaced. The film also received backlash for its depiction of Mexican culture.
Saldana, 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 Gascon.
An emotional Saldana last week, and in previous acceptance speeches, credited “Emilia Perez” 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.”
Saldana, 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.
