Zoë Saldaña brands America ‘entitled’ for spelling her name incorrectly
She recently won a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar.
Zoë Saldaña has called out America for being ‘entitled’ after her birth certificate was written without accents on her name.
The 46-year-old actress – who recently won a Golden Globe for her role in Emilia Pérez, and is nominated for an Oscar – reflected on her name in a chat with Jessie Ware and her mother Leonie Ware on their Table Manners podcast.
When singer Jessie asked whether Zoë has a ‘squiggle’ – or a tilde – over her last name, the actress replied: ‘I was born in New York, New Jersey, and on my birth certificate they didn’t put [a tilde] on.’
She explained: ‘I think that back in the day it was an entitlement of “well, this is America, this is English, that doesn’t exist, so we’re not gonna put it in”.
‘Versus now – there’s this mindfulness of “how do you want to be called? What is your name?” And that I truly appreciate,’ she continued
‘That gave me permission to make that choice, and come into that awareness of, wait a minute, this is not my full name. My full name is Zoë Saldaña, and it’s no longer my job to help you pronounce my name.
The 2025 Golden Globe winner explained how she thought it was left off due to American entitlement (Picture: Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images) Zoë plays lawyer Rita Castro in Emilia Pérez and she’s nominated for an Oscar (Picture: Netflix)‘But it’s also my job not to take it personally if you can’t,’ she added.
Zoë plays lawyer Rita Castro in Emilia Pérez, who helps the titular character – a Mexican cartel leader played by Karla Sofía Gascón – start afresh.
Her previous film and TV credits include Avatar, Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Colombiana, and series Lioness.
In November, Zoe reflected on how she came about the role in a 60 Seconds chat with Metro.
‘In summer 2022, Jacques [Audiard, director] was like, “If this is important for you, you should get on a plane and come and meet me.” I was in Grand Cayman vacationing,’ she recalled.
‘I had just finished Guardians Of The Galaxy 3. I was exhausted, and I was with my family. And it’s not easy to travel from Grand Cayman all the way to Paris!
‘I’m there rehearsing and I can’t get a read on this man. I don’t know if he likes me. I don’t know if I suck. We do a whole weekend of rehearsals and improvisation. Then I get back, three flights back to Grand Cayman, and I receive an email: “Jacques loved you. Everything is fine.” I was like, “Oh my God!”‘
Despite much hype, the 13-time Academy Award-nominated movie has been dubbed by some viewers as ‘one of the worst films ever’ with concerns over its representation of Mexican culture and the trans community.
This comes as Zoë’s co-star Gascón was embroiled in controversy as comments on X resurfaced in which she appeared to take aim at Muslims, George Floyd, The Oscars’ diversity efforts, and even her Emilia Pérez co-star Selena Gomez.
Gascón was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Emilia Perez and was praised as the first out trans actress to be nominated in the best actress category.
However, since the unearthed X posts the film’s director Jacques Audiard has distanced himself from the actress in an interview with Deadline, commenting: ‘What Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.’
This comes after co-star Karla Sofía Gascón faced recent controversy (Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage) Some X posts were unearthed, in which she appeared to be lashing out at a number of minority groups (Picture: Netflix)In a statement at the time, Gascón said: ‘I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt.
‘As someone in a marginalised community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain.
‘All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.’
During an hour-long Saturday night interview with CNN en Español – which Variety reports was organised by Gascon herself and not through Netflix, so was therefore ‘unauthorised’ – the Spanish actress broke down in tears several times.
She also implied that the timing of the posts being unearthed was part of an effort to sabotage her awards chances, given that she’s the first openly trans nominee for the award.
The actress offered her ‘most sincere apologies to all the people who may have felt offended for the way I express myself in my past, in my present and in my future.’
She continued later in the interview: ‘I believe I have been judged, I have been convicted and sacrificed and crucified and stoned without a trial and without the option to defend myself.’
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