Consider it as a fate at a long and often rather complicated price. After winning almost all possible predecessors for his support work in Jacques Audiard’s Musical Crime Drama “Emilia Pérez”, star Zoe Saldaña ended her first Oscar season with the ultimate prize: her first Oscar, for best supporting actress.
A tough Saldaña took the scene after receiving the award of last year’s winner, “The Holdovers” star Da’vine Joy Randolph, called out to her mother and the whole family who was in the audience (she issued another big, quite cute call to her husband, filmmaker and producer Marco Perego, and His, and his.
In her speech, Saldaña paid tribute to the “silent hero and power” in characters as hers and then made sure to highlight some of the heroes in her own life: her immigrant parents and declared herself the “proud child of immigrant parents.” The actress, who parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic, then noted that she is “the first American of the Dominican origin to accept an Oscar Prize”, but promised not to be the last.
Then it film Saldaña, which premieres at Cannes 2024, was considered to be a favorite and Frontrunner in the category (even after a shared best actress at the festival, which also included her co -stars Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz). At OscarThe She knocked out a strong selection of other best actress nominatedIncluding colleagues for the first time Ariana Grande (“Wicked”), Monica Barbaro (“A Completely Unknown”) and Isabella Rossellini (“Conclave”)-Plus Felicity Jones (“The Brutalist”), which has been nominated before.
In the film, the balances play as a pure -hearted lawyer (they exist!) Rita, who is unexpectedly involved in a local cartel word, which asks her for help in getting gender transfer surgery and ultimately a new life. Years later, Rita meets the named Emilia Pérez (nominated Gascón) and is shocked to see how much she has changed. Soon, draw with Emilia in her quest to find a modicum of forgiveness in the world that she previously ruled with an iron hand. Plus: Sing and dance!
During the many months of the awards ceremony, Saldana picked up an envious bundle with hardware for their work in the Netflix movie, including a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award, A Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, along with many awards from festivals such as Middlebur In short: she was the favorite and she proved.
Not that the road there was easy. Audiard’s movie, Originally praised by many after his Cannes debutFinally, turned out to be split along the way in honor. Still, The feature passed away with 13 Oscar nominationsThe most for all non-English language functions ever. (One of the songs Saldana sings in the film, “El Mal”, was also nominated for the best song at this year’s ceremony.)
Counter -reaction to the creation of the filmTemes, language and treatment of real problems already moved by the time the best actor nominated Gascon fell from grace in spectacular manner, Care of “bad tweets” and worse reactions to public screams. Yet balances, that reacted quickly to the situationSeemed to be undamaged in his Oscar trip, just like Gascon, the first open Transka actress who was nominated for an Oscar, tumbled straight out of the race.
In one Interview with IndieWire earlier this yearThe actress explained how Audiard’s film felt like the culmination of things she was manifested for her career in recent years. “I felt just like at different times,” I want to speak Spanish in a story. “I want to dance sometime in my life.” Oh, maybe a musical. It would be nice to sing outside the shower. “But it wasn’t all one thing,” said Saldaña. “And then I just remember that I always looked at Jacques work and went,” God, I wish a girl I could work with a filmmaker like that. ” weeks. ”
As she explained, in the lead role in “Emilia Pérez” became a liberating experience for the actress who was best known in advance to be an important player in the ensemble to billions of dollars sci-fi franch services As “Avatar”, “Star Trek” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” With the unconventional, operatic crime drama, “I went in. I felt her spirit and I felt that many more people would be in Rita,” Saldaña said.
