Yahoo Lifestyle Karla Sofía Gascón’s Racist Tweets and the Cautionary Tale of ‘Emilia Pérez’
The title character of “Emilia Pérez” is not a good person. Her lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), thinks she can become one, agreeing to facilitate a notorious cartel leader’s gender transition in part because “Changing the body changes the soul / Changing the soul changes society / Changing society changes everything.” (“Emilia Pérez” is a musical, so these lines are delivered in song.) But the ensuing story thoroughly disproves Rita’s thesis; Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) herself may think she’s changed inside as well as out, throwing herself into a nonprofit dedicated to helping victims of the very organizations she once led, but she soon gives into her own worst impulses. When Emilia threatens violence against her ex-wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), who’s unaware of her identity, for potentially moving their children away, it sets off a deadly chain of events that claim Emilia’s life. In the end, Emilia can’t outrun the sins of her past, and she pays the ultimate price for them.
Such moral realism stands out in what’s otherwise a proudly fantastical film. In “Emilia Pérez,” a pre-surgery consultation can become a borderline Busby Berkeley number, but a murderer can’t become a saint just by embracing their long-repressed identity. Just because Emilia belongs to a persecuted group doesn’t mean she can’t persecute others. It’s a theme more prescient than director Jacques Audiard could have foreseen. Mere hours ago, “Emilia Pérez” was an Oscar frontrunner, with a field-leading 13 nominations and the backing of the world’s largest streaming service. Now, it’s a cautionary tale in the dangers of building a warm and fuzzy narrative around a reality that’s far more complicated.
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On Thursday, social media users uncovered — and as of this writing, are still uncovering — posts by Gascón disparaging Islam (“deeply disgusting”), George Floyd (“a drug addict swindler”) and a diversified Academy Awards (“an Afro-Korean festival”). Gascón is currently nominated for best actress, and had already attracted mild controversy for disparaging “people working with” fellow nominee Fernanda Torres in an interview. That flare-up pales in comparison with the current maelstrom, which jeopardizes not just Gascón’s own campaign, but that of the movie named after, and thus inextricable from, her character.
Before the posts resurfaced, “Emilia Pérez” had the makings of a Netflix redemption tour. The disruptive company, barely over a decade into producing original content, has attained nearly every mark of entertainment industry acceptance except the biggest one of all: the Academy Award for best picture. While past hopefuls like “Roma” and “The Power of the Dog” have fallen short, Apple TV+ even beat Netflix to the punch, becoming the first streaming service to take the top prize with “CODA” in 2022. After acquiring the film at Cannes, where its ensemble shared the award for best actress, “Emilia Peréz” appeared to be Netflix’s best chance to date. To set it up for success, Netflix built a strategy around Gascón as the face of the film, submitting her performance as a lead and Saldaña’s as supporting even though the story is presented from Rita’s point of view and Saldaña has more screen time. A cover story on Gascón in the Hollywood Reporter emphasized her involvement in the creative process, pushing director Audiard from an initially comic premise to a more sincere exploration of self-discovery.
Up until today, that bet seemed to be paying off. Earlier this month, Gascón accepted the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy on behalf of the entire production, delivering an emotional “message of hope” that “you can never take away our soul, our resistance, our identity.” Gascón never called out her audience by name, but it was heavily implied that “our” referred to transgender people, and “you” referred to political movements motivated by fear and hatred of a demonized other — like the movement then weeks away from retaking the White House.
It’s in the nature of awards campaigns to be swayed by factors beyond the artistic merit of the movies in contention, and take on a life of their own apart from what they’re selling. In a perverse way, the reelection of Donald Trump — who wasted no time in banning trans federal inmates from institutions that align with their gender and is also attempting to bar transgender troops from the military — could be seen as a boon for “Emilia Pérez.” Never mind that the film itself cautioned against assigning moral value to someone based on their identity, as opposed to their actions; Netflix could position a vote for their strongest contender as a vote against the current administration, something to feel good about in a moment that for many of the Oscars’ voters and viewers alike feels extremely bad.
But with Gascón’s posts, that fiction — and all marketing pushes are, on some level, fiction — has run face-first into reality. Gascón, a Spanish performer who transitioned in her middle career, may be transgender, but that’s no guarantee she can’t be Islamophobic, racist, or any of the other negative impressions given by her statements. The brewing scandal invites immediate questions about the fallout (Will Gascón’s co-stars condemn her? Will she even attend the ceremony in March?) and how we got here (Did anyone vet her accounts in the eight months since the movie premiered at Cannes? Why is this not standard practice by now?). It also offers lessons in the assumptions we make, and likely shouldn’t, about the inherent virtue of facing adversity. Then again, if you watched “Emilia Pérez” closely, those lessons were there all along.
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