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Emma Corrin calls for gender-free Oscars and BAFTAs, rolling actor and actress gongs in one as The Crown star insists awards aren’t ‘inclusive enough’
- Emma won Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 2021 Golden Globes for her performance as Princess Diana in The Crown
- The 26-year-old thespian said making award categories gender neutral would allow everyone to feel ‘recognised and represented’
- Emma has publicly identified as non-binary since 2021 and has publicly shared their journey with their gender identity on social media
Emma Corrin has called for award shows such as Oscars and BAFTAs to introduce gender-neutral categories.
The Crown star, 26, has insisted in a new interview that the awards, as they stand, are not ‘inclusive enough’ and said the change she hopes for would allow everyone to feel ‘recognised and represented’ to feel.
Emma – who identifies as non-binary and uses the she/she pronouns – said better representation within roles in the entertainment industry is needed to encourage “an urgency” around tackling the topic.
Hoping for change: Emma Corrin, 26, has called for awards shows like Oscars and BAFTAs to introduce gender-neutral categories (pictured in November)
Emma won a Best Actress Golden Globe award for her performance as Princess Diana in series four of the hit Netflix drama, and is starring in two high-profile films this year, My Policeman and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Talking to the BBC Today Programme on the possibility of gender-neutral categories at major awards shows, Emma said: ‘I hope for a future where that happens.
“I think the categories are not inclusive enough at the moment. It’s about everyone feeling recognized and represented.’
Why? The Crown star insisted the awards, in their current formats, are not ‘inclusive enough’ and said the change would allow everyone to feel ‘recognised and represented’
Emma added that more representation was needed within entertainment industry roles to encourage “more urgency” to tackle the topic.
The Crown star asked, “When it comes to categories, should we be specific about whether you’re being nominated for a female or male role?
“You can praise and discuss the representation there, but the conversation should really be about more representation in the material itself, in the content that we see for non-binary people, for queer people, for trans people, because then I think that would a lot will change.
“As those roles emerge, which means more people and more actors playing those roles, I think there will be more urgency to answer these questions.”
Emma has publicly identified as non-binary since 2021 and has publicly shared their journey with their gender identity on social media.
The thespian told The Today Program: “Your gender identity has so much to do with how you feel and it’s so much related to how you want to be seen or seen by people and that can be very triggering or make you uncomfortable if you don’t feel fair or correct being seen.
“I think it was necessary for me to be open and honest about it, because otherwise I would have felt that I was being misunderstood.”
Not to worry: The movie star added that they weren’t worried that opening up about their gender identity would limit the kind of roles they’d get in the future
The movie star added that they weren’t worried that opening up about their gender identity would limit the kinds of roles they’d get in the future.
Emma explained, “I would never sacrifice integrity or honesty over work that I may or may not get,” they said.
“Being non-binary is in no way a rejection of femininity or my femininity. It’s kind of embracing that.
“I still want to play women. My experience on this earth has been a female experience — and now it’s kind of a very fluid experience.”
Emma is currently preparing to take the stage in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, which was published in 1928 and explores gender identity.
The full interview with Emma Corrin airs on the Today Program on Friday, November 25.
Royal Role: In 2021, Emma won Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 2021 Golden Globes