The director of Emilia Pérez addressed the controversy surrounding the movie’s star — Karla Sofía Gascón.
In an interview with Deadline, French writer-director Jacques Audiard responded to Karla’s slew of resurfaced, anti-Muslim, racist, and offensive tweets.
Karla portrayed the titular character and made history as the first openly trans actor to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. But even with a series of statements and apologies, the damage was already done.
To salvage the film’s other 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, Netflix has virtually cut ties with Karla, excluding her from the remaining Oscars campaign.
Now, the film’s director has addressed how he feels about Karla’s involvement in the movie despite her being the Oscar-nominated star of the project.
“It’s very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía,” he said.
“The exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set,” Jacques added, “was indeed based on trust. And when you have that kind of relationship, and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course, that relationship is affected. It’s as if you fall into a hole.”
Since her tweets resurfaced, Karla has deactivated her X account and issued a statement on Instagram saying she has “nothing to hide” and refuting the accusations against her in an interview on CNN en Español. “I am neither racist nor anything that all these people have tried to make others believe I am.”
Jacques, who has faced separate backlash for his statements about Emilia Pérez, called Karla’s actions and response “self-destructive.”
“I haven’t spoken to her and don’t want to,” he said. “She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why?”
Jacques continued, “I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand about this, too, is why she’s harming people who were very close to her. I’m thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she’s hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I’m thinking of myself, I’m thinking of Zoe and Selena [Gomez]. I just don’t understand why she’s continuing to harm us.”
“I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions,” Jacques said.
Jacques disagreed with Karla’s attempt at apologizing for her offensive tweets. “She’s really playing the victim. She’s talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising. It’s as if she thought that words don’t hurt.”
Here’s the thing: Emilia Pérez has become such a contentious film heavily criticized by audiences for its representation (or lack thereof), questioned for its critical acclaim, and now singled out for its star actor’s problematic social media presence. Yet, the film still leads with 13 Oscar nominations and 11 BAFTA nominations, 10 Critics’ Choice Awards nominations, and four Golden Globe wins.
Will Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweets be enough to knock Emilia Pérez off track, or will the film continue to succeed?
Read the full interview here.