Daniela Vega, the star of the Chilean film A Fantastic Woman, became the first transgender presenter at the Oscars last night.
Here’s her moment:
Daniela Vega is the first openly transgender person to ever present at the #Oscars. https://t.co/DNWArXgVva pic.twitter.com/x4TEBKLYTt
— ABC News (@ABC) March 5, 2018
Vega had another moment later when her film, A Fantastic Woman, was honored with the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Said director Sebastián Lelio backstage: “It has been a long struggle to have the state acknowledge the existence of transgender people and now we are about to face a new government which is very right-wing and very conservative and I think it will mean a step backwards. And I hope this award and the film and the awareness that the film has created…helps to give more relevance to a matter that is urgent, because a transgender person is not a ‘Class B’ person. [They are] one of us.”
He added: “I felt that, for me, it was a very instinctive and strong decision knowing that I was not going to make this film without a transgender actress in the main role. That was me, and that put [the] film in a different dimension because of everything that Daniela brought to the film. … That doesn’t mean someone like Daniela can’t interpret a cisgender role, you know what I mean? So I think we are talking about freedom here. We are not [restricting] opportunities, we are opening them.”
Watch:
