Reservation Dogs star covers face in 'blood' at the Emmy Awards in bold political statement

Reservation Dogs star D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai made powerful political statement at the 2024 Emmy Awards as he walked the red carpet with a red handprint painted over his face.

The 22-year-old actor was one of the few celebrities at the major award ceremony to make a bold political statement on the red carpet. The young Canadian star was photographed in a classic black suit with a bright red bloody handprint painted over his mouth which is a symbol of solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement in North America.

This handprint is in recognition of all of the thousands of women that have been silenced and the harrowing fact that Native American women are up to 10 times more likely to be murdered or sexually assaulted. The root cause of this injustice stems from a number of factors including colonization and historical trauma, racism, and sexual objectification of Indigenous women.

• Emmys 2024 hottest red carpet looks - from Selena Gomez stunning velvet to Laverne Cox's plunging gown

• Emmy Award nominations: The Bear breaks record amid panned season and Baby Reindeer gets 12 nods

The bold statement comes as Woon-A-Tai was nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his iconic role in FX's 'Reservation Dogs' as the character Bear Smallhill. Woon-A-Tai is competing in the category against Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Martin Short from Only Murders in the Building, and Matt Berry from What We Do in the Shadows.

Woon-A-Tai's political statement advocating for Indigenous women comes as he was an all-indigenous cast and crew on set of Reservation Dogs. Reservation Dogs is comedy-drama television series that follows the everyday lives of four Indigenous teens in rural Oklahoma, as they spend their days committing crimes to save money to escape their reservation community.

During an interview with Deadline , the young star dished on his Emmy nomination reaction and why he thought the show was overlooked for two seasons. He told the news outlet: "We’re one of only a few Native shows ever to accomplish what we have accomplished. So even if I wasn’t on the show, I would feel the same way… we were overlooked for both Season 1 and Season 2, which I felt like were amazing. The cast and crew put their hearts into it. It was something that people have never seen before. So yes, we had our little conversations about getting snubbed, but I’m happy the voters are recognizing how great the show was."

Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sport and entertainment stories.

* Follow Mirror Celebs on Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .