Netflix is standing behind “Emilia Pérez” regardless of the fog of controversy that has engulfed its principal star, Karla Sofía Gascón.
Showing Thursday on “The Town” podcast, Netflix Chief Content material Officer Bela Bajaria publicly addressed the scandal for the primary time.
“It’s really a bummer for 100 very incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” Bajaria stated. “If you look at the nominations and all of these sort of awards that it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it’s distracted from that.”
Till just lately, “Emilia Pérez” seemed poised to be an awards season juggernaut for Netflix, which scooped up the movie for a reported $12 million after it premiered to nice acclaim at France’s Cannes Movie Pageant in Could.
Directed by Jacques Audiard, the musical crime caper follows a Mexican cartel chief (performed by Gascón) who enlists the assistance of an legal professional (Zoe Saldaña), to endure gender affirmation surgical procedure. After dwelling as her true self for a while, the character seeks out a reunion together with her grieving spouse (Selena Gomez), who assumed her partner had died, and their kids.
Although “Emilia Pérez” confronted criticism from some Mexican critics in addition to members of the transgender neighborhood early on, the movie picked up 4 Golden Globe awards, together with Finest Movement Image ― Musical or Comedy. It additionally grew to become an Academy Awards frontrunner, nabbing 13 nominations. Amongst them was a historic nod for Gascón, who grew to become the primary overtly transgender girl to be nominated for the Finest Actress Oscar.
However Gascón quickly discovered herself on the epicenter of not one, however two, media firestorms. First, she raised issues about violating the Academy’s promotional marketing campaign guidelines when she accused fellow Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres’ staff of “speaking badly about me and ‘Emilia Pérez,’” per an interview with Brazilian outlet Folha de S. Paulo.
Simply days later, a collection of years-old X (previously Twitter) posts from Gascón’s account resurfaced through which she expressed incendiary views about Muslims, Jews, George Floyd and Oscars variety, amongst different matters.
Gascón apologized for each the accusations she leveled at Torres in addition to her controversial social media posts, later deactivating her X account altogether. However the harm had been carried out, with Netflix quietly eradicating her from its publicity supplies. Saldaña, thought of by many to be the Oscars frontrunner within the Finest Supporting Actress class, and Gomez have each since addressed their costar’s remarks, whereas not mentioning her by title.
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Although the possibilities of “Emilia Pérez” successful on the Oscars subsequent month have dimmed, Bajaria nonetheless praised the “incredible campaign” Netflix ran by way of selling the movie and advised the streaming platform could be “reevaluating” the method of vetting the social media presence of its actors and creators transferring ahead.
“If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today,” she stated Thursday. “That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold — that’s what you want, you want to take those big swings.”
Hearken to Bela Bajaria’s “The Town” interview right here. Her feedback on “Emilia Pérez” begin across the 4:31 mark.
