Joey Magidson
Well, Karla Sofía Gascón has certainly upended the Oscar race, hasn’t she? The Emilia Pérez star is in hot water over some incredibly problematic tweets from her past. It goes without saying that what she was saying is awful, and whether in jest or not, is wholly unacceptable. That’s a separate issue playing out now, and one I’m not here to talk about, really. I’m going to focus today on the potential Oscar fallout, as this is coming at just about the worst time possible for Gascón, her co-stars/filmmaker, and Emilia Pérez itself.
Oscar controversies are nothing new, though in the post Harvey Weinstein era they’ve certainly seemed to calm down, with less negative campaigning afoot. So, that this all seemingly began with Gascón accusing people working with Fernanda Torres and I’m Still Here of having it out for her is something we just don’t see anymore. We’ve become far more used to situations like with La La Land and Moonlight, or with Barbie and Oppenheimer, where everyone involved in both contenders are outwardly stating they’re fans of each other.
Recently, when there have been controversial nominees, it hasn’t mattered much. Just look back at Green Book and its producer/writer Nick Vallelonga, who had a horrible tweet discovered. It didn’t stop the film from winning Best Picture or from Vallelonga taking home the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. This feels different, however, and could cast a dark cloud over the entire movie, not just her.
How bad could it be? In regards to the film itself and the Academy Awards, there are three brackets to look at now. There’s the categories the movie was never winning, or had an uphill battle to win. Those places you can 100% write off now. For example, Best Cinematography is simply not happening. You can take that more or less to the bank. Then, there’s the places it was in a close race with other films/performances, which now you probably would be smart not to predict. This is where Jacques Audiard is going to suffer, as he was not out of Best Director or Best Adapted Screenplay yet, but now seems like a far longer shot. This is also where Karla Sofía Gascón was once in thick of Best Actress. Now, she’s the clearest number five possible. Finally, there’s the places Emilia Pérez was enjoying frontrunner status in. This is where you look to Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and even Best Picture, not to mention Zoe Saldana in Best Supporting Actress. Saldana has got to hope that voters won’t hold what Gascón has said against her.
Gascón has some major work to do in order to help her co-star, as well as keep the film afloat in Best Picture. So far, she hasn’t been doing great at righting the ship. Now, if you love the movie, you might still vote for it regardless, just ignoring her. However, anyone who was considering it amongst other contenders now has a reason to go in another direction. With as tight a race as Picture is, as well as a few other places, that could easily make the difference in the end.
Time will tell if Emilia Pérez is a lost cause or not, though I think the season still is pretty long. Gascón probably can save Saldana, at least. Everything else? I’m honestly not sure. Predictions will be updated this week, with a piece coming on Friday, so sit tight for that. Oscar season just took a hard swerve out of nowhere…
Stay tuned to see if Karla Sofía Gascón and Emilia Pérez recover in time to win Oscars!
What frustrates me about this controversy is that The Discourse™ surrounding Emilia Pérez seems to have now focused almost entirely on its star’s views of racial and religious minorities.
Not that Karla Sofía Gascón‘s bigotry should be swept under the rug, but let’s also not forget about the film’s own deeply messed-up views on the people and communities it self-righteously claims solidarity with. Should anyone be that surprised that a movie with such a mean streak against Mexicans would cast someone who complains about “too many Muslims” in Spain as its leading lady? Because for me, a trans woman who eagerly signs on to play a character who describes herself as “half he, half she” is absolutely someone who would dismiss a man murdered in broad daylight as a “drug dealer and a hustler.”
Very fair point.