Not only has the film’s subject matter come under attack during the run-up to tonight’s Oscars, but its star has landed in hot water over a series of offensive tweets
From offensive social media posts from its stars to accusations of whitewashing, 13-times Oscar nominated film Emilia Pérez has found itself at the centre of a whirlwind of controversy.
The film, made by Netflix, depicts a Mexican cartel boss’s journey to transition to be a woman and has received praise for its bold and original story telling, although it’s also been subject to its fair share of criticism.
The largest point of controversy has been a series of past social media posts by the film’s star Karla Sofia Gascón, who is the first openly trans actor to be nominated for an Academy Award. Posts from her X (formerly Twitter) account, largely from 2020 and 2021, have been widely condemned as Islamophobic, racist, and insensitive.
One post from 2020 read:
“I’m sorry, is it just my impression or is there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”
Another tweet, attached to a photo of a Muslim family in a restaurant, mocked the family’s Islamic dress, saying:
“Islam is marvelous, without any machismo… Women are so respected they are left with a little squared hole on their faces for their eyes to be visible… How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY.”
She also weighed in on the 2021 Oscars, criticising the increasing focus on diversity in Hollywood:
“More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films. I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M.”
The bulk of the offensive posts were deleted after they resurfaced, with one Netflix boss describing their appearance as ‘a bummer’.
Beyond Gascón’s personal controversies, the film itself has suffered real backlash in Mexico, where many have felt that Emilia Pérez continues a long tradition of Hollywood telling Mexican stories through a foreign lens.
Directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, the movie shows Mexico’s violent drug trade and the journey of a cartel boss who undergoes a transition. While many have praised its representation of trans identity, others have questioned whether the story does justice to the country it’s set in.
Film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega said:
“Mexico has some of the richest storytelling traditions in the world, yet time and again, our stories are told by foreign filmmakers with their own perspectives.”
The film has also suffered a specifically Oscars-related scandal. Gascón made headlines recently when she suggested that the team behind fellow Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres , who is nominated for her role in I’m Still Here, had been trying to undermine her and the film.
“What I don’t like are social media teams… trying to diminish our work, like me and my movie, because that doesn’t lead anywhere.”
Her words led many to argue that Gascón had broken Oscar rules which ban negative campaigning, although she later claimed that her remarks referred generally to online hate, not Torres herself.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
