Controversy dampens enthusiasm surrounding the Oscars campaign of the Netflix film ‘Emilia Pérez.’
The past several months have been nothing short of magical for the Netflix film Emilia Pérez. It has amassed nominations and wins from different prestigious award giving bodies, the most notable of which is its 13 Oscar nods.
The charm, however, has pretty much dissipated, thanks to a controversy involving its lead star Karla Sofía Gascón that sent shockwaves across the industry. The POST gathers here all the relevant FYI’s to keep you in the loop of one of Hollywood’s biggest scandals this year.
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What is the Gascón brouhaha all about?
Gascón, who recently made history as the first-ever openly trans individual nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category, has also become the most recent actor to be haunted by regrettable past tweets. It all started on January 30, when a series of social media posts to the Spanish actress’ account on X (formerly known as Twitter) was resurfaced by journalist Sarah Hagi. In the rather incendiary tweets, Gascón expressed controversial views on Muslims, George Floyd, and even Oscars diversity.
In one of the tweets, for instance, she wrote: “I’m sorry, is it just my impression or is there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.” (Variety has independently translated the tweets.)
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Another post saw Gascón even attaching a photo of a Muslim family in a restaurant, including a woman covered in a burqa. The tweet reads: “Islam is marvelous, without any machismo. Women are respected, and when they are so respected they are left with a little squared hole on their faces for their eyes to be visible and their mouths, but only if she behaves. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY.”
The 52-year-old also shared her thoughts on George Floyd, a mere few days after he was killed by a police officer. “I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys without rights and consider policemen to be assassins,” she posted. “They’re all wrong.”
In what can be considered as ironic, Gascón, a trans woman, also seemed to have had qualms about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In another tweet, she shared her two cents on the 2021 Oscar ceremony. “More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M,” she wrote. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”
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How did Gascón respond to the backlash?
The following day, January 31, in a statement via Netflix, Gascón apologized for the tweets: “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.” On February 3, she also broke down in tears during an interview with CNN Español, asserting that she was “not a racist.”
She also closed her X account, telling The Hollywood Reporter in a statement: “I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore.” The actress added that there was something “very dark” behind the circulation of her old tweets, before ending her statement with a shoutout to critics: “The more you try to sink me, the stronger it will make me. The greater the victory will be.”
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How did her Emilia Pérez colleagues react?
The scandal caused the Oscars campaign of Emilia Pérez to implode just weeks before awards night. On February 1, co-star Zoe Saldaña broke her silence over the scandal during an interview in London, saying: “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad.” She added: “It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric toward people of any group.”
Netflix distanced itself from Gascón by removing her from Oscar campaigns starting February 5. In a separate article on The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that Netflix has scrapped the controversial actress from promotional emails and plans to edit the film’s posters to give Saldaña more prominence. The article also claimed that Netflix will not cover any of Gascón’s travel fees to promote Emilia Pérez, meaning the streaming giant will not fly her to Los Angeles to campaign for the film in the days leading to Oscars night on March 2.
Rubbing even more salt to Gascon’s wounds is Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard “disavowing” her in an interview with Deadline. In the exclusive interview, the French filmmaker expressed “profound disappointment with Gascón’s behavior, essentially disowning her for the position she has put others in, and for her continued appearances filled with half-apologies, and the hurt felt by those she targeted in her original missives.”
More recently, on February 9, Selena Gomez said in a press Q&A during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival that, while stopping short of mentioning the controversy, “some of the magic has disappeared.” The pop star added that she remains proud of and grateful for the work she has done for Emilia Pérez. “I live with no regrets, and I would do this movie over and over again if I could.” It should be noted that Gascón also tweeted about Gomez in 2022, calling her billionaire co-star a “rich rat” amid the Gomez-Hailey Bieber feud.
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How did her home country Spain react?
In her native Spain, the initial pride the nation felt about Gascón’s history-making accomplishments turned into astonishment, sparking wider conversations about politics and how the public views celebrities, per a report on the NPR. Though the response in the United States was (unsurprisingly) harshly critical, things were a bit more subdued in her home country, with public opinion swaying both ways.
Some condemned Gascón, such as Spanish writer Bob Pop. He said Gascón’s tweets are ironic, writing: “I think that she is not aware that the hate speech she has against Black people, Islamic people, poor people, the government … are weapons for the people who think that she has no right to be herself as a trans woman.”
Others, meanwhile, were more forgiving. Elvira Lindo, another well-known Spanish writer who wrote about the scandal for Spain’s leading newspaper, El País, says that while in the US “a star can fall overnight if they do something wrong,” in Spain things are different. “Spain has been more tolerant, or more open to forgiveness,” she writes, adding that nobody deserves the kind of harsh punishment that Gascón has been subject to.
As we continue to simmer in the aftermath of the Gascon Tweets Saga, it remains to be seen if the controversy will completely derail Emilia Pérez’s chances to further make history come Oscars night. As we wait with bated breath to see if it emerges victorious or not, it’s time to ponder—once again as we always do when similar scandals arise—the eternal conundrum of whether or not to separate the art from the artist.
