Emma Watson has become the first person ever to win an award in a gender neutral award category. At the newly refurbished MTV Film & TV Awards, she won the ‘Best Actor’ award. The category featured both female and male actors, and nominated actors included James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman. Watson eventually won the prize for her role in Beauty & The Beast.
According to a report in the Guardian, Emma said, “The first acting award in history that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience. MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone. But to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. And that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories. This is very meaningful to me.”
She further said, “I think I’m being given this award because of who Belle is and what she represents. The villagers in our fairytale wanted to make Belle believe the world was smaller than the way that she saw it, with fewer opportunities for her. I love playing someone who didn’t listen to any of that.”
The MTV Movie & TV Awards recently decided to scrap the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, and instead have gender-neutral Best Actor in a Movie and Best Actor in a TV show categories. Earlier, the Emmy award organisers had asked Billions star Asia Kate Dillon, who is non-binary, to choose a category they more closely identify with, between Best Actress and Best Actor. Asia had chosen Best Actor as the terminology was more gender-neutral than Actress. They had also written to the Academy saying, “I’d like to know if in your eyes ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ denote anatomy or identity and why it is necessary to denote either in the first place?”
Presenting the award to Emma, Asia said, “Tonight we celebrate portrayals of the human experience, because the only distinction we should be making when it comes to awards is between each outstanding performance.”
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Milly Bobby Brown won the Best Actor in a TV Show award for her role in Stranger Things, edging out Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and Atlanta‘s Donald Glover. Stranger Things also won the award for show of the year, while Beauty and the Beast was awarded movie of the year.
Jharrel Jerome and Ashton Sanders won the Best Kiss award for Moonlight, Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen won the Best Duo award, while Daniel Kulya of Get Out won the Best Next Generation award. Hidden Figures won an award for Best Fight Against The System, which “examines how honest, well-told stories lead to important discussions, lead to understanding, and can lead to a changed nation.”
Feature Image Courtesy: People.com