A Netflix boss has said it is a “bummer” that old social media posts by lead Emilia Perez actress Karla Sofia Gascón are distracting from the impact of the film.
Lead actress Karla Sofia Gascón, 52, plays a cartel leader named Manitas in the Jacques Audiard Spanish language musical. He seeks the help of a Mexican lawyer, played by Zoe Saldaña, to help fake his death and transition into Emilia Pérez.
Selena Gomez stars as Manitas’s wife.
Gascón is in the running for Best Actress at the upcoming Academy Awards.
However, Gascón’s campaign was derailed following a backlash to several offensive tweets she made over the past five years, including posts about George Floyd, Islam, and diversity at the Oscars, which were unearthed by journalist Sarah Hagi.
Gascón has since issued multiple apologies for the posts, and appeared in an hour-long interview with CNN en Español in which she broke down in tears as she answered questions about her social media history, telling interviewer Juan Carlos Arciniegas that she was “not a racist”.
Chief Content Officer for Netflix, Bela Bajaria, appeared on an episode of the podcast The Town on Thursday, and was asked what she thought of the controversy.
“You know what I think is really a bummer [is] for 100 very incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” she said. “If you look at the nominations and all of the awards love it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it’s distracted from that.”
“It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way [from] this incredible movie that Jacques Audiard – who is an incredible director – has made. It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie.”
On whether Netflix is re-examining its social media vetting policies for cast and crew who work on Netflix projects, Bajaria acknowledged that while it is being re-evaluated by many in the industry, including Netflix, the logistics of the task seemed immense.
“It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that … I do think it is raising questions for a lot of people about reevaluating that process,” she said.
“I think you also have to [ask]: Are we going to actually look at the personal social media of tens of thousands of people, every single day around the world, [given the] amount of original film and TV and co-prods that we make and license? It raises a lot of questions about what that should look like.”
Emilia Perez racked up several awards at the Cannes Festival last year, including a collective best actress award for stars Gascón, Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Saldaña, and the jury prize for director Jacques Audiard.
It has also received 13 nominations at the forthcoming Academy Awards, and won four Golden Globes.
Bajaria went on to describe the film as “incredible” and says Netflix would still have gone ahead and acquired the film.
“If you asked me today, everything I know? We would still buy the movie today.”
“That movie is incredible – it’s creative and it’s bold and that's what you want.
“You want to take those big swings. And so yes, there’s incredibly talented people who made that movie that, by the way, resonated with a lot of people this year.”
Earlier this month, a report in The Hollywood Reporter stated that Netflix had removed Gascón from promotional emails and plans to edit the film’s posters to give Saldana more prominence.
The publication has also reported that Netflix will not cover any of Gascón’s travel fees to promote the film or her styling for appearances at these events.
The Independent had at the time contacted Netflix and Gascón’s representatives for comment.
Responding to the controversy over her posts, Gascón had previously apologised in a statement to The Independent: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt.
“As someone in a marginalised 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.”
