Why is ‘Emilia Pérez’ so controversial?

(Chris Pizzello/AP)

By: Brooke Fernandez

“Emilia Pérez”, the 2024 musical crime drama by director Jacques Audiard, has been the center of attention this awards season, and not for good reason. The film has caused quite the stir online with some claiming that the success it has received is undeserved.

Audiences claim that the film is a bad representation of Mexicans, as well as the transgender community. Uproar surrounding the directors intentions, a string of controversial tweets, and a questionable portrayal of minority communities has caused disaster for the film's Academy Award campaign.

The film follows three women in Mexico, one being Emilia Pérez, a transgender woman. Over the course of the film, Perez is helped by a lawyer to leave behind the life of being a gang leader while simultaneously fulfilling the desire of being a woman. However the content and portrayal is being regarded online as offensive. GLAAD even went as far as writing that “‘Emilia Pérez” is a step backward for trans representation.” Many are upset because the film has been praised by cis-gender critics but seen as harmful by LGBTQ+ critics.

“Emilia Pérez” has also faced backlash over the lack of Mexican representation. Although Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez are of Mexican heritage, none of the three main actresses were born in Mexico, in fact Karla Sofía Gascón is Spanish. The film only spent a few days filming in Mexico, the rest in a studio in Paris. This has only added to the argument of a lack of authenticity in the film's portrayal of Mexico.

Gomez has been widely criticized for her performance in Emilia Pérez due to her spanish speaking abilities. However it is important to recognize that her character is both a non-native Spanish speaker and an American. This has made many viewers argue that her lack of fluency feels acceptable. Gomez responded to one critic, the Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez, who thought her spanish was “indefensible”. She wrote “I understand where you are coming from. I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given.” Derbez later apologized for his comments.

(Shanna Besson/Pathé)

More recently, the director has been under fire for comments made during an interview calling Spanish the “language of undeveloped countries, the poor, and migrants.” Audiard “didn't study much”(about mexican culture),“ I kind of already knew what I had to understand,” he said in an interview. This has only added fuel to the fire in the arguments about the film's lack of authenticity.

(Shanna Besson / Netflix)

On Jan. 21, a video interview with Gascón was released online. This interview was not well received as it is now seen as a starting point for the recent downward spiral of Gascón’s career. In the interview she voiced her thoughts that Fernanda Torres, fellow Oscar nominee, team has been purposefully tearing her and ‘Emilia Pérez’ down. This caused discussion on Academy Award rules with some saying she violated the rule “Any public communication by anyone associated with an eligible film attempting to cast negative on a competing film will not be tolerated.”

Although Gascón was not penalized for her comments, some online took this as an opportunity to look into her online history. This brought forward a large number of past controversial tweets.

(Karla Sofia Gascón/ X)

In one tweet, she voiced her opinion on a previous Academy Award show in a very distasteful way. In another she voiced her very controversial opinion on Hitler, which somehow only scratched the surface of what was revealed. The internet has been very quick to cancel her over these many harmful comments.

(Karla Sofia Gascón/ X)

Gascón has since apologized, both in an hour long interview with CNN, and an instagram post. What she wrote translates to, “I am not the same person I was 10 or 20 years ago[...] I recognize, in between tears, that they have won, [...] to stain my existence with lies or things taken out of context.” However people were quick to criticize Gascóns attempt at an apology by acknowledging that the tweets date between 2019 and 2024, not 10 or 20 years ago. Amid this controversy, Gascón has decided to not attend any of the recent award events.

Some of the cast and crew have since responded to the comments made by Gascón, one being Gomez, who Gascón allegedly called a “rich rat” in a resurfaced tweet. On Feb.9 at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Gomez stated “some of the magic has disappeared” yet she has no regrets about being a part of the film. Saldaña stated in a Q&A,  “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.”  In an interview with deadline, the director said, “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. Why is she harming herself?”

(Adam Feldman/ X)

Up until now ‘Emilia Pérez’ has been an award season success, but with final voting coming to a close for the Academy Awards, it seems as though they might not receive the love they were once expecting.