Zoe Saldaña makes feelings clear after controversial BAFTAs speech was censored and she was escorted off stage

Zoe Saldaña has broken her silence and having her acceptance speech chopped down at this year's BAFTAs.

The US movie star was up for Best Supporting Actress at London's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday evening (16 February) for her role in Netflix musical-comedy Emilia Pérez, going against Wicked's Ariana Grande, The Brutalist's Felicity Jones and Conclave's Isabella Rossellini.

Saldaña, 46, also beat Jamie Lee Curtis - who was also nominated for her role in The Last Showgirl - to the grand prize on the night, as well as her 2024 co-star Selena Gomez.

Despite the ceremony airing on the BBC, the broadcaster shocked viewers watching from home by seemingly ushering Saldaña off the stage before she'd finished addressing the audience.

Several sections from the latter-half of her emotional acceptance speech were also censored - though, this may have been in part due to her message containing a handful of expletives, which would have directly gone against the BBC's strict no-swearing policy.

Speaking to LADbible, the broadcaster said the decision had been spurred by 'time constraints'.

"As in previous years, due to the nature of the show it is broadcast with a short delay," a spokesperson explained.

"And while we always aim to keep the core sentiment of acceptance speeches, edits have to be made due to time constraints."

And Saldaña has now spoken out for the first time after her win.

Taking to Instagram last night, the mother-of-three shared a red carpet photo from the festivities, holding a BAFTA closely in her arms.

The star won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Pérez (Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

"Speechless, honored and grateful," she wrote in the caption.

"Thank you @bafta for recognizing our film and thank you for my award."

Hundreds of messages of congratulations continued to pour into the post's comment section.

"Incredible!!! So well deserved!!" one fan of the movie star gushed.

Another added: "It just keeps coming !!! Congrats friend."

According to the official BAFTAs YouTube account - which has since shared the full version of Saldaña'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'.

Saldaña's speech was chopped down (Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)

"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!"

As we say, however, Saldaña has now spoken out following the bittersweet moment, claiming in a new statement she's nothing but grateful for the prestigious achievement.

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