Netflix Breaks Silence on ‘Emilia Pérez’ Scandal: “This Is Such a Bummer” – Hollywood Reporter
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Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria says the streamer is “reevaluating” its vetting process in regard to talent social media accounts.
Netflix is finally commenting on the massive scandal that’s engulfed its leading Oscar contender Emilia Pérez.
Chief content officer Bela Bajaria addressed the controversy during an interview on The Town podcast, where she was asked her reaction to star Karla Sofía Gascón’s resurfaced history of racist tweets. Emilia Pérez has garnered 13 Academy Award nominations, and Gascón is the first openly trans actress to receive an Oscar nod, but the acclaimed drama’s prospects are perceived to have dimmed thanks to the uproar.
“I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” Bajaria said. “And if you look at the nominations, and all of this awards love that it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it distracted from that. It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way [from] this incredible movie that Jacques Audiard — who is an incredible director — has made. It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie.”
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Asked if Netflix will reexamine its social media vetting process for talent on its projects in the future, Bajaria replied, “It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that … I do think it is raising questions for a lot of people about reevaluating that process.”
Pressed if Netflix specifically was reevaluating that process, Bajaria confirmed the company was, but also pointed out the logistical difficulty of such an endeavor: “I think you also have to [ask]: ‘Are we going to actually look at the personal social media of tens of thousand of people, every single day around the world, [given the] amount of original film and TV and co-prods that we make and license?’ It raises a lot of questions about what that should look like.”
Yet Bajaria also added: “If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today. That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold — that’s what you want, and it resonated with a lot of people this year.”
Earlier this week, Gomez addressed the controversy as well while speaking at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday night. “Some of the magic has disappeared, but I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done, and I’m just grateful and live with no regrets,” she said. “And I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”
Gascón, who plays the titular Emilia Pérez in the Netflix film, has been under the microscope after her years-old offensive social media posts, including racially charged comments about Black people, immigrants and Islam, resurfaced in late January.
After the controversy broke, Gascón, the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for an Oscar in an acting category, has repeatedly apologized and attempted to defend herself against accusations of racism and xenophobia, including in an hourlong interview with CNN en Español.
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