‘Emilia Pérez’ Controversy, Karla Sofía Gascón Tweet Backlash Explained
- Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” received the most nominations from major award bodies this season.
- Over the last three months, the film and its cast have faced multiple controversies on social media.
- In the latest crisis, fans are attacking the film’s lead, Karla Sofía Gascón, for her old social media posts.
“Emilia Pérez” was a frontrunner for the 2025 Oscars after bagging 13 nominations, but a growing number of fans and critics began turning against the film after a spate of controversies.
The Netflix movie, starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón, is a cross-genre crime musical about a Mexican cartel boss who fakes her death so she can transition.
Variety reported that Netflix bought the film for about $12 million after it premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. While it wasn’t a hit on the platform, its award success is a boost to Netflix’s reputation.
Some film fans questioned why the movie is drawing so many accolades, arguing its competition is better, and have criticized old social media posts by its lead actor, Gascón.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it had a critic score of 72% and an audience score of 16%, indicating a divide between industry experts and the general public.
Here’s what to know about the controversies surrounding the film.
A sex-change song and Selena Gomez’s performance drew ridicule
In one scene that went viral, a doctor sings about the gender reassignment surgeries he has performed.
Users on X who saw the clip out of context mocked the musical number, while others who had seen the film called it boring.
Film fans reignited criticism by resharing the scene after “Emilia Pérez” won four awards at the Golden Globes on January 6.
It won the award for best musical or comedy motion picture over many fan-favorite films, including “Wicked,” “The Substance,” and “Challengers.”
Gomez’s performance and her Spanish language skills have also been criticized.
Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor who starred in 2021’s “Coda,” called her performance “indefensible” last December on the Mexican entertainment podcast “Hablando de Cine.”
After Gomez said sorry and that she did the best she could with the time she was given, Derbez apologized the next day for his “thoughtless” comments.
Some viewers criticized how ‘Emilia Perez’ portrays trans identity
WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS / PATHÉ FILMS / FRANCE 2 CINÉMA / PAGE 114
At first glance, it would seem progressive for a film about a trans person to get multiple Oscar nominations, as an openly trans actor has yet to win an Academy Award. But critics say the film doesn’t uplift the community, partly because it includes transphobic tropes, such as describing a trans woman as “half male/half female.”
In November 2024, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD called the film “a step backward for trans representation” and shared several negative reviews from critics who are trans.
On January 6, Gascón responded to the backlash, telling Vanity Fair that people are “running a negative, nasty campaign” against the movie. “Anything that I say, they will use it to make their case bigger,” she said. “When something has a big impact and is liked by many, others hate it just for existing.”
When asked about critics who are trans panning the movie, Gascón said: “Being LGBTQ, having those labels, does not remove your stupidity, just like heterosexuality does not remove your stupidity.
“What bothers me is that the people that say things like that just sitting down at home doing nothing. If you don’t like it, go and make your own movie. Go create the representation you want to see for your community.”
Gascón added that the trans experience is not a monolith.
Juan Barquin, a critic of the movie who is trans and was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article, responded in an X post the next day, telling Gascón to “go fuck herself” and give her money to make her own trans movie.
Drew Burnett Gregory, another trans critic mentioned in the piece, also responded.
“I’ve watched many trans actors and writers attach themselves to cis artists in the hopes of helping their careers,” he said.
“It’s not a position I envy. When the dust settles and the awards are doled out, it’s the cis people who have benefited while the trans people can barely get work.”
On January 6, Jeremy O. Harris, a Tony-nominated playwright and actor, shared an Instagram story post criticizing the outlet THEM and other LGBTQ+ detractors of “Emilia Pérez,” arguing its success could open doors for representation.
‘Emilia Perez’ also faced backlash for its portrayal of Mexico
Shanna Besson/Page 114 – Why Not Productions – Pathé Films – France 2 Cinéma
“Emilia Pérez” is mostly set in Mexico, but the film’s director, Jacques Audiard, is French, and the movie was made in France. In addition, one Mexican-born actor has a lead role: Adriana Paz. Gomez is American and has Mexican heritage; Saldaña’s parents are Dominican and Puerto Rican; and Gascón is Spanish.
Users on X, including Mexican actors and cinematographers, argued the film doesn’t accurately portray Mexico, its culture, and its people.
Rodrigo Prieto, a Mexican, Oscar-nominated cinematographer who worked on “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” told Deadline last November that he was “unhappy” the film was not shot in Mexico and didn’t include more Mexican people in the production.
“The whole thing is completely inauthentic,” Prieto said. “Yes, they had dialogue coaches but I was offended that such a story was portrayed in a way that felt so inauthentic.
“It was just the details for me. You would never have a jail sign that read ‘Cárcel’ it would be ‘Penitenciaria’. It’s just the details, and that shows me that nobody that knew was involved. And it didn’t even matter. That was very troubling to me.”
In December 2024, casting director Carla Hool told a SAG-AFTRA foundation Q&A that her team searched across Mexico and Latin America for the lead roles.
“We wanted to keep it really authentic, but at the end of the day, the best actors who embodied the characters are the ones right here,” Hool said, adding that they changed the backgrounds of Gomez and Saldaña’s characters because they aren’t native Mexicans.
This further angered critics.
‘Emilia Pérez’ was snubbed by GLAAD but received the most Oscar nominations of any film this year
‘Emilia Perez’ spawned a French-set parody film, ‘Johanne Sacreblue’
Karla Sofía Gascón accused people on social media of trying to tear her down
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
On January 28, Folha de S. Paulo, a Brazilian daily newspaper, published a video interview where Gascón said people had torn down her work to highlight that of fellow best actress Oscar nominee, Fernanda Torres.
Representatives for the Academy did not respond to a comment request from Business Insider.
Variety reported on January 29 that the comments do not violate the rule because Gascón did not negatively comment on Torres’ acting performance or film.
“In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience,” Gascón told Variety. “Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”
Karla Sofia Gascon’s racist tweets resurfaced, to more backlash
Netflix
On January 30, fans and journalists resurfaced posts Gascón shared on X featuring offensive remarks about Islam, Muslims, George Floyd, and Miley Cyrus. The most recent posts were from 2021.
Variety reported that in one post, which has since been deleted, Gascón called the 2021 Oscar ceremony an “Afro-Korean festival” after Daniel Kaluuya, a Black British actor, and Yuh-Jung Youn, a South Korean actor, won awards.
“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón said in a statement to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. “As someone in a marginalized 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.”
On January 31, Gascón deleted her X account and shared a lengthy statement with The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore, so at their request I am closing my account on X,” it read.
Gascón went on to post several additional statements on Instagram and appeared in an hourlong interview with CNN en Español. In these posts and interviews, Gascón denied she was racist or Islamophobic and said some of the posts were fake or taken out of context.
On January 31, while attending a Q&A in London that Gascón did not appear at, Saldaña was asked to respond to “what’s been said online.”
“I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad,” Saldaña replied. “It makes me really sad because I don’t support and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.”
On February 9, Gomez attended a Q&A at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where she was asked how she was doing following the chaos of this award season.
“I’m really good. Some of the magic has disappeared, but I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done, and I’m just grateful and live with no regrets,” Gomez said. “And I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”
Director Jacques Audiard disavowed Gascón in an interview as Netflix seems to distance itself from the star
Medios y Media/Getty Images
In early February, Variety reported that Netflix had released a new “Emilia Pérez” poster for award show voters that features the film’s stars and nominations, except for Gascón and her Oscar nod.
Awards panels for the Oscars and others haven’t finished voting, so the controversy may affect the film’s chances of winning awards.
On February 5, Audiard told Deadline that Gascón’s old posts were “inexcusable” and said she was “playing the victim.”
“I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing,” he said, seemingly referring to Gascón’s response to the backlash.
Audiard said that Gascón’s response to the backlash was hurting him, her castmates, and everyone else who worked on the film.
When asked about “Emilia Pérez” being criticized for its depictions of cartels and victims of gang violence in Mexico, Audiard said the movie was not intended to be realistic.
“The representation of the cartels in the film is thematic. It’s not something that I’m particularly focused on in the film,” Audiard said. There’s one scene that deals with it. The real thing that I’m interested in, that I was interested in doing, is that I wanted to make an opera.”
While some social media users praised Audiard for criticizing Gascón, others accused him of throwing her to the wolves and criticized comments Audiard made about the Spanish language that they believed were problematic.
After the interview, Gascón shared one more post, this time in English, in which she said she understood Audiard’s comments and would no longer speak out in defense of herself or the film.
“I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt along the way,” Gascón ended the post.
Gascón laid low for the remainder of awards season. She stayed away from most public events, including the BAFTAs, where “Emilia Pérez” took home the award for best film not in the English language and best supporting actress for Saldaña.
Though Gascón did not attend the BAFTAs ceremony, both Saldaña and Audiard thanked her while listing the other cast and crew who helped make “Emilia Pérez.”
“To you, my dear Karla Sofia, that I kiss,” Audiard said in French, as translated by an onstage translator.
Gascón reemerged to attend the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, where she was nominated for best actress. She laughed gamely as Conan O’Brien made an awkward joke about her controversial tweets while she was seated in the audience.
A Netflix exec called the ‘Emilia Perez’ scandal ‘a bummer’
In an interview on The Town podcast with Puck’s Matthew Bellonii released on February 14, Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria addressed Gascón’s controversy. The exec repeatedly stressed that it was unfortunate how the backlash had affected the other people who worked on “Emilia Pérez,'” calling it “such a bummer.”
When Belloni asked if this incident would change how Netflix vets talent’s social media for future projects, Bajaria said that they would be reevaluating it, but stressed how logistically challenging it would be to “actually look at the personal social media of tens of thousands of people, every single day around the world,” given the sheer volume of content Netflix is producing and licensing.
Despite everything that happened, Bajaria told Belloni she still stands behind the film. “If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today. That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold — that’s what you want, and it resonated with a lot of people this year.”
Representatives for Gascón, Netflix, the Academy, and THEM did not immediately respond to a comment request from BI.
