Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón in ‘Emilia Pérez’.Photo:Netflix
Netflix
There’s no movie quite likeEmilia Pérez, a musical thriller from French filmmakers about a fictional Mexican cartel leader transitioning into a woman. Despite being an unprecedented, genre-mashing original, the Netflix film has also emerged as awards season’s most controversial contender.
Writer-director Jacques Audiard’s musical has steadily generated buzz starting with a glowing 2024Cannes Film Festivalreception where it won the best actress prize. The latter was shared betweenEmilia Pérez’s four stars:Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the kingpin-turned-titular character;Zoe Saldaña, as the beleaguered lawyer helping Emilia transition in secret;Selena Gomez, as Emilia’s unsuspecting wife and mother of their children; and Adriana Paz as Emilia’s eventual lover.
Gascón, 52, would also go on to make history as thefirst openly transgender actressto receive best actress nominations at theScreen Actors Guild Awards,Golden Globes,Academy Awardsand more.
“I am who I am; know who you [are],” the Spanish starsaid onstage at the Globeson Jan. 3 whenEmilia Pérezwon for best comedy or musical motion picture.
(Left-right:) Zoe Saldaña, Édgar Ramírez, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofiía Gascón and Adriana Paz at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024.KC Armstrong/Deadline via Getty
KC Armstrong/Deadline via Getty
“The light always wins over darkness,” she added, speaking to the movie’s themes of gender-affirming empowerment. “You can maybe put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you never can take away our soul, or our resistance, or our dignity.”
But even beforeEmilia Pérezled the2025 Oscar nominationstally on Jan. 23 with 13 nods including Best Picture — the most-ever for a predominantly non-English-language film — the film was under scrutiny. While the likes ofGuillermo del ToroandMeryl Streepvoiced support, critics gave it a mixed reception (review siteRotten Tomatoes lists itas 74% certified fresh), and moviegoing audiences ranked itamong the year’s worst(19% on the Popcornmeter as of Jan. 31).
Transgender and Mexican viewers became increasingly vocal upon the movie’s Nov. 13 streaming debut on Netflix, with several film clips going viral.GLAAD, the LGBTQ advocacy group, calledEmilia Péreza “profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman” and a “step backward for trans representation.” Writing for the publicationThem, Fran Tirado criticized Audiard’s story as “an idea of transness so completely from the cis imagination.”
Selena Gomez in ‘Emilia Pérez’.Shanna Besson/Pathé
Shanna Besson/Pathé
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In a statement toThe Hollywood Reporterthat day, Gascón said a “campaign of hate and misinformation” caused her to close the account. “Perhaps my words are not correct, many times due to ignorance or pure mistake. I apologize again if anyone has ever felt offended or in the future. I am a human being who also made, makes and will make mistakes from which I will learn. I am not perfect."
Karla Sofía Gascón on Jan. 15.Medios y Media/Getty
Medios y Media/Getty
How might these controversies affectEmilia Pérez’s prospects at the upcoming SAG Awards,BAFTA Film Awardsand Oscars? One X user, linking to Hagi’s posts,wrotethat they are “curious” about how award voters will handle Gascón’s “vile tweets.” The actress' “bigoted” and “violent” social media posts “have blown up awards season; the only possible comparison is to Will Smith storming the Oscar stage to slap Chris Rock,” opined Daniel D’Addario forVarietyon Jan. 31. “It’s raised existential questions about how her campaign, or, at its end, her Oscar night, can go on.”
Emilia Pérezis now streaming on Netflix. Ahead of its controversies, Tom Gliatto presciently called it “the year’s biggest, strangest movie extravaganza” in afilm review for PEOPLE.
source: people.com
