It’s not every day you win a Critics Choice award — but when Zoe Saldaña nabbed one for her role in Emilia Pérez, her husband wasn’t there to witness the moment.
While taking the stage at the awards show held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Friday, February 7, Zoe used her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech to reveal the hilarious reason why.
“My husband went to the bathroom! Come on,” the actress, 46, joked of her partner, Marco Perego Saldaña, before kicking off her speech.
“Guys, I’m usually supposed to memorize a speech. My publicist told me I couldn’t, so I wrote it. To my fellow nominees, the work you have done is breathtaking. I will forever be proud to be among you,” she said.
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Despite his momentary absence, Marco received a shoutout in Zoe’s list of thank yous.
“Thank you to my family, especially my incredible husband and my nephew, who is with me tonight,” she said. “You made me me, so thank you. And to my boys, my greatest adventure and my toughest critics. I love you.”
The actress added, “My wish for the impact of this film on audiences and our world is I hope we can all be curious and open-hearted toward each other because you never know when you have the opportunity to be the hero in someone else’s story. So, our world is too big and too beautiful to be any other way. So, stay curious, stay kind and stay blue — not too blue. Thank you.”
Zoe and Marco started dating in spring 2013 after meeting several years prior. The couple tied the knot shortly after in summer 2013.
“I’ve known my partner for five years. I knew of his work. I knew of him. Then we met,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2014. “And months later, we both made the decision to do what we both individually vowed never to do — to get married.”
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The Avatar star admitted the romance was a whirlwind, adding that they moved quickly once they chose to commit to tying the knot.
“As soon as we decided we were going to get married, we didn’t wait. We did it three weeks later,” she told the outlet. “That part was very, very quick.”
Zoe and Marco went on to welcome three kids: twins Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio in November 2014 and son Zen in December 2016.
