Zoe Saldaña and Camille were the two sole female Academy Award winners for the musical crime drama "Emilia Perez" for "Supporting Actress" and "Best Original Song" respectively (out of 13 nomination). Both participated in Oscars Press Room interviews following their wins.
Zoe Saldaña
Saldaña won her first-ever Oscar for “Best Supporting Actress” for her acting work in “Emilia Perez” as Rita Mora Castro. She triumphed over her fellow nominees Ariana Grande ("Wicked"), Monica Barbaro ("A Complete Unknown"), Isabella Rossellini ("Conclave"), and Felicity Jones ("The Brutalist").
If she can go back to any moment of her life that would mold her and make her stronger, Saldaña responded, “I think it's every time that I went after a part, and I didn't get it. And I cared so much, and I was so heartbroken for sometimes a day, sometimes a week.”
Saldaña is a firm believer that adversity makes us stronger. "I got up again," she underscored. "Because, at the end of the day, if I don't - if I don't act, if I don't - if I don't do my art, then what am I? Who am I? And realizing that it's not about the win, when you learn to let that go - and it is about the work day in and day out - the day that you do win, you just have a deeper appreciation for it.”
“You feel that you have appreciated every experience and every moment that has led you here,” Saldana acknowledged.
Camille
Camille won the Oscar for "Best Original Song" for "El Mal" along with her fellow songwriters Jacques Audiard and Clément Ducol.
This marked Camille's first time that she ever scored for film. When asked if she would want to continue in this path (and do it in Hollywood vs. planning to come back to France), Camille remarked, "I mean, that adventure has proved that friends in Hollywood are in the same world, you know. There are no boundaries when you're being creative."
"So, I'm absolutely open to scoring again," she admitted. "For any inspiring project that will come to me."
March coincides with Women's History Month. Camille opened up about working with Zoe Saldaña and Selana Gomez.
"I'll start with Selena, Selena is a great icon," Camille said. "But the song we wrote for her, especially 'Mi Camino,' was for her as a woman, and she inspired us a lot. She worked with a lot of humility. And I felt that in the studio, she was acting and serving her character, being very open for direction."
"Zoe is a very perfectionist artist," Camille said. "She's very precise, so she was not in her comfort zone and she kept telling me and us that she's not a singer, and I kept telling her, 'Yes, you are,' and she proved so."
Photo Courtesy of Netflix