Zoe Saldaña completed her “Emilia Pérez” victory lap Sunday by picking up the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Saldaña’s Oscars win was widely expected after the actor snagged Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards for her much-praised performance. She beat out fellow contenders Monica Barbaro, Ariana Grande, Felicity Jones and Isabella Rossellini for the Academy Award.
The actor used her acceptance speech to thank her husband of 12 years, Marco Perego, as well as her immigrant family.
“I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last,” Saldaña said.
“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,” she continued. “This is for my grandmother.”
Until recently, “Emilia Pérez” was expected to be an awards season juggernaut for Netflix, which snapped up the Spanish-language musical thriller for a reported $12 million after its premiere at France’s Cannes Film Festival last year.
The film’s titular character is a Mexican cartel leader (played by Karla Sofía Gascón) who enlists the help of an attorney, Rita Mora Castro (Saldaña), to stage her death so that she can undergo gender affirmation surgery.
Four years later, Emilia initiates a reunion with her grieving wife (Selena Gomez) and their children, all of whom assume she’s dead.
Though most reviews of “Emilia Pérez” were positive, the movie was heavily criticized in Mexico for its somewhat irreverent take on cartel violence. GLAAD and other LGBTQ+ advocacy groups also deemed the film “retrograde” in terms of transgender representation on the big screen.
Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro in Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez.” WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS/PATHÉ FILMS/FRANCE 2 CINÉMA/NETFLIX
In January, however, “Emilia Pérez” picked up a staggering 13 Academy Award nominations, including a historic nod for Gascón, who became the first openly trans woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.
But Gascón soon thrust “Emilia Pérez” into the epicenter of a media firestorm when she accused fellow Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres’ team of speaking badly about the film, raising concerns about violating the Academy’s campaign rules in the process.
Days later, a series of years-old X (formerly Twitter) posts from Gascón’s account resurfaced in which she expressed incendiary views about Muslims, Jews, George Floyd and Oscars diversity, among other topics.
Gascón apologized for her comments, but continued to stoke the fallout with questionable media appearances and social media remarks. Netflix responded by removing her from its “Emilia Pérez” promotional campaign entirely.
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