Zoe Saldaña won her first Oscar this year for her work on Emilia Pérez.
The star took the Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actress category and in a new interview revealed that her statuette is “trans.”
“We have it in my office and my Oscar is gender fluid,” Saldaña told People.
Saldaña also said that the Oscar “goes by “they/them” pronouns.
The Oscar winner played the role of Rita in Emilia Pérez, an attorney who agrees to help a cartel leader undergo a sex change operation.
“Thank you to the Academy, for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita, and talking about powerful women,” Saldaña said during her acceptance speech at the Oscars. “Jacques, you are a beloved character in my life. Thank you for taking the interest. Thank you for being so curious about these women to tell this story. To my cast and my crew of ‘Emilia Perez,’ I’m sharing this award with you.”
Saldaña also mentioned her family and grandmother, saying, “My grandmother came to this country in 1961 — I am a proud child of immigrant parents… I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last. I hope. The fact that I’m 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, this is for my grandmother.”
Saldaña is not the first person to say their Oscar goes by they/them pronouns. Fresh off her Oscar win in 2023, Jamie Lee Curtis went on the Today show, where host Savannah Guthrie asked if “she named her,” referring to the trophy.
“I’m in support of my daughter Ruby. I’m having them be a they/them,” Curtis said. “I’m going to just call them ‘them.’ They/them, and they are doing great, they’re settling in, and I just, in my life, I never saw it in a million years that I’d have this couple days, and I’m very moved by the whole thing.”
