MTV pioneering gender-neutral awards
Emma Watson wins best actor honours for her role in Beauty and the Beast
Emma Watson became the first person to win the MTV Movie and TV Awards’ new gender-neutral best actor in a movie award Sunday night for her performance as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. The awards show also added a genderless best actor category for television.
These are the first major genderneutral acting awards. Most, like the Golden Globes and the Oscars, have separate categories for actors and actresses.
After being handed a small red statue in the shape of an overflowing bucket of movie popcorn, Watson launched into an emotional speech that lasted more than three minutes about the newly created categories.
“The first acting award in history that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience,” she said.
“MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone,” added Watson. “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.”
She continued, thanking Asia Kate Dillon, the Billions actor who presented the award to Watson.
Dillon, who identifies as gender non-binary, sparked conversation about the gendered categories in major acting awards earlier this year when Showtime submitted Dillon’s performance for the Emmys.
No one, Dillon included, knew which category to choose for submission: best actor or best actress.
So Dillon wrote a letter to the Television Academy.
“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?” Dillon asked in the letter. “The reason I’m hoping to engage you in a conversation about this is because if the categories of ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ are in fact supposed to represent ‘best performance by a person who identifies as a woman’ and ‘best performance by a person who identifies as a man’ then there is no room for my identity within that award system binary.” The academy told Dillon the rules state “anyone can submit under either category for any reason.”
“This is very meaningful to me,” Watson said. “Both to be winning the award and to be receiving it from you, Asia. Thank you for educating me in such — in such an inclusive, patient and loving way. Thank you so much.”
The actress has long been outspoken on issues such as inclusion and gender equality.