Zoe Saldaña responded to more Emilia Pérez controversy after winning Best Supporting Actress at the 97th Academy Awards.
Shortly after being awarded, the actress was in the Oscars press room where a journalist commented that the film's cultural depiction was "really hurtful” for Mexicans.
"First of all, I’m very, very sorry that many Mexicans felt offended. That was never our intention. We spoke from a place of love," began Saldaña, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage.
"I don’t share your opinion," she continued. "For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We were making a film about friendship. We were making a film about four women."
The actress added that the women in the musical crime comedy-drama, including transgender lead Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, "could have been Russian, could have been Dominican, could have been Black from Detroit, could have been from Israel, could have been from Gaza."
She added that the female characters "are still very universal women that are struggling every day" but were however "trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find the most authentic voices."
"So I will stand by that, but I’m also always open to sit down with all of my Mexican brothers and sisters, with love and respect, [to have] a great conversation on how 'Emilia Pérez' could have been done better. I welcome it," she concluded.
While Emilia Pérez won two Oscars, including Best Original Song for El Mal, the movie has seen no shortage of dissension, like troubling tweets that Gascón made just four years before. In her tirade, Gascón attacked winners of the 2021 Oscars, mainly films that starred marginalized entertainers.
While Gascón claimed that her Emilia Pérez costars supported her "200 percent" amid the drama, Saldaña denied doing so.
"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," the actress said during a Q&A in London last month.