We live in an era when the entertainment industry is gradually coming to terms with the LGBTQ community’s existence and the contributions they have made to society at large, as well as to the entertainment scene. However, there is still much work to be done regarding the pronoun topic—and non-binary award-winning artist Emma Corrin believes it’s high time the Best Actor and Best Actress categories were combined into a gender-neutral category.
Corrin won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and was nominated for an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy Award for their performance in the fourth season of Netflix’s historical drama, The Crown, portraying the late Diana, Princess of Wales. In addition, Corrin was nominated for Best Actress at the Laurence Olivier Awards for the second time for the stage production Anna X. But despite the acclaim and recognition, the artist feels as though the awards do not sit well with them, especially being a non-binary individual who uses they/them pronouns. In an interview with BBC News, Corrin called for more inclusive major award shows, saying, “I hope for a future in which that happens. I don’t think the categories are inclusive enough at the moment. It’s about everyone being able to feel acknowledged and represented. It’s difficult for me at the moment trying to justify in my head being non-binary and being nominated in female categories.”
Besides The Crown, Corrin also stars in two high-profile films, including My Policeman opposite Harry Styles and Netflix’s upcoming romantic drama Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Although they always provide outstanding performances in the projects they star in, Corrin contemplated the fact that they mostly play female roles. “When it comes to categories, do we need to make it specific as to whether you’re being nominated for a female role or a male role?”
According to Corrin, the award-giving bodies must start to consider providing a wider representation of the community. “You can discuss awards and the representation there, but really the conversation needs to be about having more representation in the material itself, in the content that we are seeing for non-binary people, for queer people, for trans people, because then I think that will change a lot,” they also told BBC News, adding: “When those parts come up, meaning more people and more actors are playing those roles then I think there will be more of an urgency with which these questions will be addressed.”
Corrin’s call for a genderless awards show wasn’t just an impossible dream, as the categories for the Film Independent Spirit Awards became gender-neutral, followed by the Locarno Film Festival. In the music scene, the Grammys became gender-neutral in 2012, and the Brit Awards, on the other hand, combined the best male and female solo artist classifications into a single category for its 2022 ceremony.
Apart from The Crown and My Policeman, Corrin also starred in several movies and television series, including Pennyworth, Misbehaviour, Alex’s Dream, and Retreat. Corrin’s latest project, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, will soon grace Netflix on December 2. You can watch the trailer below.
