Culture

Piers Morgan slams Emma Watson’s gender-neutral Best Actor prize at the MTV Awards

May 08 2017
Written by Mayer Nissim

Piers Morgan is a frequent critic of Emma Watson, and her win in the gender-neutral Best Actor in a Movie category at last night’s MTV Awards has annoyed him further.

Watson picked up the gong for her lead role in Beauty and the Beast and praised organisers for recognising that “imagination should have no limits”.

Speaking on the Good Morning Britain couch today, Morgan grumpily announced the news before suggesting that gender-neutral prizes could, in fact, cause greater inequality.

Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast

“Gender neutral awards – just what the world was craving,” he moaned to co-host Susanna Reid.

“I can’t think of a better recipient than Emma Watson either, a great flagbearer to all things gender neutral.”

He continued: “What’ll now happen is that women will probably win a lot less awards because they made them gender-neutral and there’s more male actors.

“So actually by trying to get equality, you end up with more inequality. It’s a masterpiece really, of political correct…”

He later added: “Do we need to have men and women? Shall we call you woes? Woe is me.

“You become woes. we can’t become men obviously, we become persons. And everything becomes gender neutral.”

Morgan opened up the debate to the audience but did so in his typically controversial fashion.

“If anyone thinks you should, I’ve got a good doctor you can see,” Morgan said of those favouring gender-neutral awards.

The GMB presenter has been an outspoken critic of Emma Watson’s feminist statements in the past and recently called her a “feminist fraud” for stripping off for a Vanity Fair photoshoot.

Watson received her award last night from non-binary Billions actor Asia Kate Dillon.

She beat competition from fellow nominees Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Hugh Jackman (Logan), James McAvoy (Split) and Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen).

Meanwhile, the Best Actor in a Show prize went to Millie Bobby Brown for her striking performance in Stranger Things.

The other nominees in that category were Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Donald Glover (Atlanta), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead), Mandy Moore (This Is Us) and Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin).