If you followed the Oscar race, you’ve undoubtedly realized that this year’s had some unusual features. In any other edition, the mere nomination of horror films like Nosferatu and The Substance would have been enough to cause the Academy’s votes to flip.
This time, however, this fact seemed irrelevant when we remember the controversies of nominee Emilia Perez, which range from the film’s screenwriting to the criticism of the protagonist and Best Actress nominee, Karla Sofía Gascón.
Although the criticism is extremely relevant, it is necessary to understand the nuances of the case and its developments to answer the following question: does Karla Sofía Gascón deserve this brutal cancellation by the mainstream media?
Understanding the Avalanche
At the beginning of the second half of 2024, Mexican content producers and critics complained that Emilia Perez, which premiered on February 6th in Brazil, was a piece of prejudiced and generalized media about one of the country’s most sensitive aspects – drug cartels – while appearing blind to the nuances of Mexican culture.
In addition, the film’s French director, Jacques Audiard, said in an interview given to the Konbini website that ‘Spanish is a language of emerging countries, a language of modest countries, of the poor and migrants’.
Well, that was quite a start, but it went unnoticed until the Oscar campaign became official on January 23rd. As the film is one of the most acclaimed in the history of the award – 13 nominations to be exact -, more and more enthusiasts watched it, and fans – and haters – started researching the background even deeper.
It got to the point where viewers discovered that no protagonist was Mexican, that the filming – except for a few exterior scenes – hadn’t taken place in Mexico, and worst of all, there was no advice from a linguist or specialist in Mexican culture to guide the script, which makes grotesque colloquial mistakes.
As an appealing ploy, Karla Sofia asked Fernanda Torres, one of the most praised nominees for her performance in I’m Still Here, to help her film stop being criticized. In a video made a few hours later, Torres, in a cordial and appeasing tone, asked viewers not to create an atmosphere of rivalry and, when talking about Gascon, said ‘she’s marvelous in Emilia Perez’.
Even with Torres’ video, the criticism soon took on overwhelming proportions when some curious people scoured Gascón’s X (formerly Twitter) account and found posts from 2019 to 2024 that were prejudiced against black people, Muslims, and other minorities.
Gascón, who until then had leaned on Fernanda Torres and called for calm, accused the Brazilian artist’s team of plotting against her on the internet. And every day, the avalanche grew bigger and more irreversible.
According to BBC Brazil, Gascón gave an interview to CNN without consulting her advisors or Netflix, where she tearfully revealed that she was very hurt by the repercussions of the situation.
As if on cue, Netflix, the producer and financier of Emilia Perez‘s campaign, stopped disclosing images of Gascón in connection to the film and started giving the lead role of the Oscar campaign to Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, supporting actors in the movie.
Crossing the “t”
Does Karla Sofía Gascón deserve this brutal cancellation by the mainstream media? In a certain point of view, yes, unfortunately. Simply because she, unlike so many men in the industry, most of whom are white and straight, doesn’t have the ‘right’ to make mistakes, be conservative or prejudiced without suffering consequences.
The Oscar has just happened and it is known how much the controversy surrounding Emilia Perez has affected the voting of it. Only two awards were given to this movie and one thing is certain: Karla Sofía, the first trans woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, has played the lead role in everything but Emilia Perez. This poorly acted protagonism meant that the trans community, which has little positive representation in and out of the media, suffered the real defeat.
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The article above was edited by Isadora Mangueira.
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