There is no actress on the planet more profitable or more viewed than Zoe Saldaña. The Dominican-born actress is a fundamental part of the three highest-grossing movies in cinema history - the two Avatar installments and Avengers: Endgame - which alone have grossed over $8 billion, and now she is also an Oscar winner. After 25 years of career, much of it in commercial and mainstream cinema, the statuette has capped off her great year.
Despite all the controversies that Emilia Pérez has stirred up until the Oscars, where she was the top favorite but ended up buried under them all, Saldaña's path has been impeccable up to the Best Supporting Actress award. No one doubted her. If there was any slight chance for the Netflix film, it was her. And indeed, it was. Amid the downfall of Jacques Audiard's film and Netflix, Saldaña emerged as the only island to cling to.
"Mommmyyyy, mommmyyyy, mommmyyyy, my mother is here and all my family," the emotional actress began, thanking Jacques Audiard for "being so curious" and telling the story of the women who star in Emilia Pérez. However, the actress barely mentioned her co-stars, let alone Karla Sofía Gascón. A surprising fact because she was the one who had advocated for bringing the entire cast together on the Oscar red carpet after the controversy with the actress from Madrid - an image that did not materialize.
The Dominican-born actress remembered her family, her partner, her fellow nominees, the entire movie crew, and even Netflix's publicists. Saldaña particularly focused her speech on her mother, an immigrant, stating, "My mother arrived here in '61, and I am a proud daughter of immigrant parents. I am the first American of Dominican descent to receive this award, and I will not be the last," she emphasized.
The actress swept through the Hollywood Academy Awards season in the Supporting Actress category. She was already awarded at Cannes alongside the entire Emilia Pérez cast, and then came the Golden Globe, the Bafta, the Critic Choice, the SAG Awards... The Oscar was merely the logical consequence of that path.
Raised halfway between New York City and the Dominican Republic after her father's early death in an accident, Saldaña has been linked to purely commercial cinema from the start. In fact, her first contact with Hollywood was in the first Pirates of the Caribbean installment, "The Curse of the Black Pearl." "I was very young; it was a bit too big for me, and the pace was too fast," the actress admitted nearly 20 years later in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
From there, the actress's career has been a continuous flow through the main American blockbuster franchises: Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, Star Trek... Until reaching Emilia Pérez and all the issues surrounding the film despite its success at the Cannes Film Festival. First, there were criticisms for its portrayal of Mexico, then its handling of the transgender reality, and finally, the case of Karla Sofía Gascón. And Zoe Saldaña emerged unscathed from all of them.
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