What Zoe Saldaña actually said in censored controversial BAFTAs speech before being escorted off stage
One of the most hotly-discussed moments from last night's BAFTAs ceremony saw Zoe Saldaña escorted off the stage whilst making a speech.
Minutes earlier, the movie star had been awarded the Best Supporting Actress accolade for her role in Emilia Perez - a Netflix musical-drama that has taken home a number of awards this season, despite being called out by a handful of critics online.
Despite being shown on TV accepting her award, the BBC opted to censor the latter-half of Saldaña's speech. But what exactly did the Royal Festival Hall attendee say that wasn't shown on the broadcast?
Saldaña was up against several other huge-name actresses in the prestigious category last night (16 Feb), including Ariana Grande for her role of Glinda in Wicked, Felicity Jones for her part in The Brutalist, and Conclave's Isabella Rossellini.
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Jamie Lee Curtis was also nominated for her role in The Last Showgirl, alongside Saldaña's Emilia Pérez co-star Selena Gomez.
As we say, however, despite the evening being a colossal success for the 46-year-old, parts of her speech were given the chop when broadcasted on television. But why?
The British broadcaster previously told LADbible that their decision to cut Saldaña's speech was prompted by 'time constraints'.
The BBC explained in an official statement: "As in previous years, due to the nature of the show it is broadcast with a short delay, and while we always aim to keep the core sentiment of acceptance speeches, edits have to be made due to time constraints."
It may well have been the fact her speech was littered with a handful of expletives that sealed the deal, however, being that this would have directly gone against the BBC's strict no-swearing policy.
According to the official BAFTAs YouTube account - which has since shared the full version of the movie star's speech - she began by saying: "I was told not to cry by my children, so I’m going to try."
Saldaña quickly went on to thank BAFTA for the recognition, adding: "This is so validating and a true honour, because the very few times that I went for a part with a British accent, the dialect coach was like, 'This is not going to happen to you'.
"Even though I have a lot of British friends, I find myself repeating their phrases, like 'gather' and 'of course', and I know that I’m a pain in the arse. But luckily, I'm still friends with most of them."
She added: "BAFTA thank you, this was a creative challenge of a lifetime. How do you begin to even approach a film that not just defies categorisation, and you start by taking the leap with Jacques Audiard. I want to thank my wonderful cast."
After thanking her co-stars, a prompter revealed a countdown of how many seconds Saldaña had left, to which she hilariously responded, 'F**k, f**k, f**k!"
She went on to say: “Films are supposed to change hearts and challenge minds and I hope I did something like this. voices need to be heard, just not my English accent."
Saldaña later told journalists: "I’m dedicating all of these awards and the film Emilia Pérez to my nephew, Eli. He is the reason - they are the reason - I signed up to do this film in the first place. So as the proud aunt of a trans life, I will always stand with my community of trans people."
Topics: TV And Film, Baftas, Celebrity, US News
Rhianna Benson