Netflix Takes Its Distance from Karla Sofía Gascón in Wake of Controversy as Awards Season Resumes

A few weeks ago, or even a few days ago, it wouldn’t have been futile to think that Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Pérez would win the Academy Award for Best Picture, despite the backlash it has received from many critics and audience members, who have expressed strong reservations on the musical. On the flip side, directors like James Cameron, Denis Villeneuve, and Guillermo del Toro have all praised the movie, which ended up snagging thirteen nominations at the 97th Oscars, officially the most-ever for an international production, including Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, who is the first openly trans performer to be nominated for such an award.

This all changed when journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed a series of openly bigoted tweets from its lead star, all showing a pattern of Islamophobic and racist behavior. Gascón promptly apologized and deleted her X account as more and more tweets kept being found. Still, the damage was already done, despite four separate statements that got progressively worse and an interview she booked without Netflix’s knowledge on CNN en Español.

Now, the streamer, who made history with a trailblazing nomination in a movie that spoke to many Academy voters, is distancing itself from Gascón, who played the titular character in Audiard’s film. They released a new For Your Consideration ad that boasted the movie’s nominations but focused specifically on Zoe Saldaña, who was once touted as a frontrunner to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Whether this will affect her campaign or not remains to be seen, but the actor quickly condemned the tweets, stating, “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad. It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.” The new FYC ad can be seen below:

Moreover, Gascón planned to travel to Los Angeles this week to attend a flurry of awards shows, including the AFI Awards luncheon, the Critics Choice Awards, the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Producers Guild of America Awards, and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. She will no longer attend any of the events, and the streamer will no longer cover travel expenses or stylings for future awards shows.

It is unclear if Netflix will bring Gascón to L.A. for the 97th Oscars, though she is invited to attend by the Academy as a nominee. The show was also planning to bring back the “Fab 5” moments where previous acting winners give praise to the current nominees. This is no longer happening for the acting categories, though the decision came before the nominations were announced. Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter, but the timing of this announcement certainly leans into thinking that the Academy scrapped the acting “Fab 5” in the wake of controversy surrounding Gascón. Instead, the “Fab 5” moment will occur for the directing category and select artisan awards, with major A-listers expected to participate.

It’s been a whirlwind of the past week for the Emilia Pérez team, and one wonders if this will negatively affect their Oscar prospects. It will certainly have an impact, but how big will it have? That remains to be seen. For the Critics Choice Awards, despite multiple postponements for the ceremony due to the wildfires, the deadline for voting remained unchanged and ended on January 10th. This could mean that Audiard’s film wins several awards, which could give some fighting chance for the movie to snag something come March 2nd, especially if it can translate some wins at the SAG-AFTRA and BAFTA awards. However, its chances of winning Best Picture are now incredibly slim but do not be surprised if the year’s most-nominated film doesn’t win anything.

Source: Variety