Zoë Saldaña has revealed American officials left the accents on her surname off of her birth certificate in what she claims was an act of “entitlement”.
The Emilia Pérez star, 46, who is currently in the race for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at this year’s Academy Awards, has Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage and was born in Passaic, New Jersey.
Adding a tilde to an “n” changes the hard closed sound to a “ny” in Saldaña’s name. However, she admitted that for many years, she didn’t correct people who spelt or pronounced her surname wrong.
Speaking to Jessie and Lennie Ware on their Table Manners podcast, Saldaña said: “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, 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.
“But it’s also my job not to take it personally if you can’t,” Saldaña added.
The Emilia Pérez actor has been dragged into drama in recent weeks after her co-star Karla Sofía Gascón was discovered to have shared a number of offensive tweets about George Floyd, Islam and diversity at the Oscars.
Saldaña remarked on the podcast that modern technology has allowed users to sit at home and share their most controversial opinions with the world. “We’re living in such an era where social media gives you the permission to be so different from yourself,” she said.
“So most of the time, people sort of weaponise the fact that they can hide behind these devices to just spew so much hatred and intolerance and inflexibility.”
When the Gascón controversy first reared its head in January, Saldaña was asked point blank about the subject during a Q&A and many on social media described her answer as being too media trained.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
Saldaña later told Variety: “You may believe that it’s just a statement I came up with alongside my team, but at the end of the day, when I can’t speak on behalf of anyone else, I can only speak on behalf of myself and what I witnessed. And that needs to be enough for now.
“I’m still processing. I certainly think that this is a learning experience. Everything in life is a learning experience for all of us. And the point of uncomfortable events is for the sake of evolution. So I hope that we continue moving in the right direction.”
