Zoe Saldaña, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in trans musical drama Emilia Pérez, has said that her Oscar statue identifies as ‘trans’.
Zoe Saldaña appeared in the 2024 crime/ musical drama alongside Selena Gomez and controversial star Karla Sofia Gascón, beating out Monica Barbaro, Isabella Rossellini, Felicity Jones and Ariana Grande in the Best Supporting Actress category at this year’s Oscars.
She portrayed attorney Rita, who agrees to help a violent cartel leader (Gascón) undergo gender-affirming surgery, and despite general reaction to the film being, shall we say, mixed, Emilia Pérez swept awards season, with Saldaña garnering accolades at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, BAFTAs and SAG Awards before picking up an Academy Award.
It’s that golden statue, she has now revealed, that now identifies as “trans”, the star told PEOPLE on the red carpet for Disney/ Pixar’s Elio.
“We have it in my office and my Oscar is gender fluid,” she told the publication when asked where she kept the award.
She added that the statue is “trans” and “goes by they/them.”
Though Saldaña broke down in tears while accepting her award in the 2025 ceremony, she failed to mention trans people in her speech – and so did everyone else involved with Emilia Pérez.
Songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille, who won the Academy Award for best original song, for El Mal, also failed to mention the trans community, as did director Jacques Audiard.
When asked about the community in the press room at the Dolby Theatre, where the ceremony was held, French director Audiard claimed: “Since I didn’t win best film or best director, I didn’t have the opportunity to speak. But had I had that opportunity, I would have spoken up.”
The film and its Oscar campaign proved controversial for numerous reasons. Gascón made history by becoming the first ever out trans actress to be nominated, but after several old social media posts by the 53-year-old containing anti-Islamic sentiments, as well as posts targeting George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars were unearthed, she was effectively snubbed by both the Oscars and Netflix, who distributed the film.
“I feel and very much identify with the people who were thrown off buses for the colour of their skin, with the people who did not want them to study at university, for the people who were hated simply for existing, like how I am hated in this moment,” she told CNN at the time.
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