Zoe Salda?a’s ‘Emilia Perez’ Extensive Screen Time Sparks Oscars Category Debates
The long-standing debate about what separates a lead from a supporting performance has resurfaced this awards season. Case in point: Netflix’s high-profile contender “Emilia Pérez.” The Spanish-language musical, directed by acclaimed French auteur Jacques Audiard, has already garnered enthusiastic reviews and is poised to be a significant player across multiple Oscar categories. But the studio’s decision to campaign Karla Sofía Gascón as best actress while positioning her co-star Zoe Salda?a as a supporting actress has sparked a heated discussion.
Salda?a’s role as Rita, a lawyer who aids the drug cartel boss Manitas in faking her death, undergoing gender-affirming surgery, and emerging as “Emilia Pérez,” propels the film’s narrative. Her extensive screen time supports this argument.
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According to Matthew Stewart of Screen Time Central, Salda?a’s performance clocks in at 57 minutes and 50 seconds, representing 43.69% of the film’s runtime. It’s also slightly more than Gascón’s 52 minutes and 21 seconds (39.54%) on film. Their co-stars, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, have 27:14 (20.57%) and 11:17 (8.52%) of screentime, respectively.
“This goes beyond screen time,” Stewart tells Variety. “When it comes to Emilia and Rita, they are both independent characters with their own point of view. That stays consistent throughout. I would say Rita has more of a point of view, more like an audience surrogate. I get the strategies, but I would switch the campaigns for purity’s sake. It would mean risking one of them not being nominated.”
The five-and-a-half-minute difference would be the 12th largest of all acting categories and be the fourth highest between two actresses after 1957’s “Peyton Place” (Diane Varsi over Lana Turner – 11:31), 2018’s “The Favourite” (Emma Stone over Olivia Colman – 7:32) and 2015’s “Carol” (Rooney Mara over Cate Blanchett – 5:52). Stewart clocks screentime based on when the character is physically seen on the screen or speaking, even if they’re not in the frame.
This discrepancy places “Emilia Pérez” in an elite group of films where a “supporting” performance has more screen time than its lead counterpart. If Salda?a were to be nominated as a supporting performer, it would mark the 22nd time in Oscar history that this occurred. Other examples include Timothy Hutton in “Ordinary People” (1980), whose supporting actor win eclipsed Mary Tyler Moore’s lead actress nominated performance by over 32 minutes.
A nomination for Salda?a in supporting actress would be the 16th longest performance in the category in terms of percentage and 11th when measured by runtime. If she were to win, she would be in the top five in both areas, alongside Patty Duke (“The Miracle Worker”), Tatum O’Neal (“Paper Moon”), and Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”). More notable, a win for the Afro-Latina star would be the third acting statuette ever awarded to a Latina after Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose, who both played the same role in the two versions of “West Side Story” in 1961 and 2022.
The term “category fraud” has been mentioned at various points throughout the modern-day Oscar seasons. While the phrase might sound a tad dramatic, it points to a subtle but impactful strategy studios and campaigners employ to increase their chances of winning the Oscars. While the Academy allows voters to determine category placement regardless of studio campaigns, strategists often guide these decisions to maximize nomination potential. Notable cases include Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl” (2015) and Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007), both of whom had screen time and narrative significance rivaling their top-billed co-stars.
Stewart notes the misconception that leading and supporting are solely contingent on the amount of time on screen. “I don’t solely look at the numbers,” he says, “It’s all subjective. If you’re arguing that she’s supporting, there’s not much to back it up if you look at the whole picture.”
It is worth noting that voters don’t count minutes of screen time when filling out ballots, and filmmakers’ intentions do matter.
Netflix and filmmakers say the central character is Emilia (the movie’s named after her). When you factor in that Gascón plays the brave dual roles of Manitas and Emilia, you see how the story revolves around her. Although Salda?a’s screen time in “Emilia Pérez” is more than Gascón’s, her placement in the supporting category follows a precedent set by past campaigns, such as the best picture winner “Chicago” (2002), where Catherine Zeta-Jones won supporting actress while Renée Zellweger competed in the lead actress category. The debate also works the other way. Oscar voters have recognized performances as leads that some awards pundits argued should have campaigned in supporting, such as Michelle Williams in “The Fabelmans” and Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Sometimes, that type of switch pays off. Anthony Hopkins won best actor with only 24 minutes of screentime in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
But let’s be clear: Salda?a’s role has been accepted by the Golden Globes in the supporting category, while the SAG Awards and BAFTA honor the placement of the campaign. When it comes time for the Academy to fill out their ballots in January, a conscious decision to go against the seasonal grain is highly unlikely. And even if they choose to pull a Kate Winslet switcharoo (when she landed a lead nom, instead of supporting for “The Reader”), she could be standing proudly alongside her talented co-star.
History has shown that securing two best actress nominations from the same film is rare. Only five films have ever achieved this feat: “All About Eve” (1950) with Anne Baxter and Bette Davis, “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) with Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, “The Turning Point” (1977) with Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine, “Terms of Endearment” (1983) with Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, and “Thelma & Louise” (1991) with Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Of these, only MacLaine won. Meanwhile, male co-leads have seen double nominations 12 times, most recently with “Amadeus” (1984), which saw Tom Hulce face off against his co-star F. Murray Abraham. That ended in a victory for Abraham.
The discussion about category manipulation isn’t unique to Salda?a. Industry voters have shared similar feelings regarding her fellow competitors, such as Ariana Grande from “Wicked” and Saoirse Ronan in “Blitz.” Both of those actresses spend a lot of time on screen. Ultimately, whether or not the Acting Branch members buy it is what matters most.
If Salda?a’s narrative and screen time resonate with voters, nothing is stopping them from defying the suggestion of the various campaign strategies and nominating her in lead. Alternatively, they may honor the studio’s positioning and reward Salda?a with a supporting actress nod and Gascón with a lead actress nomination.
Ask yourself: Is this called “Emilia Perez” or Emilia Perez’s lawyer? Only voters decide.
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