Zoe Saldaña continued to cement her Oscar frontrunner status by winning best supporting actress honors at the 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards for her performance in Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez.” She stars in the musical crime drama as Rita Mora Castro, an exasperated lawyer who agrees to help a drug lord undergo gender reassignment surgery.
“My husband went to the bathroom!” Saldaña began before pulling out a written speech and thanking the Critics’ Choice Association and her fellow nominees. “I appreciate the role of a critic. I do. I sometimes read the reviews and internalize it, especially the helpful feedback like, ‘Her crying is distracting.’ ‘She’s in too many franchises.’ Or, my personal favorite, she’s too blue,” getting some laughs for her nod to the “Avatar” franchise.
“To think that ‘Emilia Pérez’ is the little movie that could and has resonated with so many people has been an experience worth having,” Saldaña continued, highlighting director Jacques Audiard for “believing” in her. “To the entire cast and crew, the talented artists and designers and musicians, I share this with you.”
After thanks to Netflix’s film team and her own family, Saldaña concluded: “My wish for the impact of this film on audiences and our world is that I hope we can all be curious and open-hearted towards each other. You never know when you have the opportunity to be a hero in someone else’s story. Our world is too big and too beautiful to be any other way. Stay curious, stay kind and stay blue — not too blue.”
Saldaña won the award over fellow nominees Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“Nickel Boys”), Ariana Grande (“Wicked”) Margaret Qualley, (“The Substance”) and Isabella Rossellini (“Conclave”).
Saldaña has now won best supporting actress honors from the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. Before the Oscars in March, she will compete in the same category at the BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The “Emilia Pérez” star’s win at the Critics’ Choice Awards came shortly after controversy involving lead actor Karla Sofia Gascon threw the musical’s Oscar campaign into a spiral. Racist and offensive tweets Gascon posted on X resurfaced after “Emilia Pérez” scored a leading 13 Oscar nominations, including Gascon for best actress. Saldaña weighed in on the controversy during a recent Q&A in London.
“I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad. It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group,” Saldaña said.
She continued, “I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is a part, of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity. And it just saddens me. It saddens me that we are having to face this setback right now.”
Next up for Saldaña is the BAFTAs on Sunday, Feb. 16.