“Emilia Pérez” director Jacques Audiard admitted he is no longer speaking to his lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón following her racist tweet scandal, calling her comments “inexcusable.”
“Very unfortunately, it is taking up all the space, and that makes me very sad. It’s very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía. The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust,” he told Deadline on Wednesday. “And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said — things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated — of course that relationship is affected. It’s as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.”
“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? Why?” Audiard continued. “I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand about this, too, is why she’s harming people who were very close to her. I’m thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she’s hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I’m thinking of myself, I’m thinking of Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don’t understand why she’s continuing to harm us.”
“I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions,” he further noted. “She’s really playing the victim. She’s talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising. It’s as if she thought that words don’t hurt.”
“Emilia Pérez” is the most nominated movie at next month’s 97th Academy Awards, with 13 nods. Those include major nominations for the Netflix film as Best Picture, Audiard as Best Director, Saldaña as Best Supporting Actress and Gascón as Best Actress.
However, as TheWrap reported on Tuesday, Gascón’s Oscar campaign is effectively dead after tweets from 2020-21 resurfaced last week that were considered by many to be anti-Black and anti-Muslim, translated from Spanish.
“My sincerest apologies to everyone who may have felt offended by the way I express myself in my past, present and future,” she said in a CNN interview unsanctioned by Netflix. “The truth is, these have been very, very difficult days … Some people have told me not to even think about attending the Oscars gala because maybe I shouldn’t.”
In response to the fallout, Gascón is no longer expected to attend her awards show circuit appearances this week — including Thursday’s AFI Awards luncheon, Friday’s Critics Choice Awards nor Saturday’s Producers Guild Awards. She was also set to be honored with a Virtuoso Award alongside co-star Selena Gomez from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday, though she may now pop up at the Goya Awards in Spain on Saturday.
In her initial apology through Netflix’s PR team, the actress shared: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
It is currently unclear if Gascón will attend the 2025 Oscars on March 2. “Emilia Pérez” is available to stream on Netflix.
