Despite the Karla Sofía Gascón controversy that torpedoed her Oscar campaign for “Emilia Pérez,” the Spanish actress is not persona non grata at Netflix.
In fact, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said he would work with Gascón again, should the occasion arise. “You have to have some grace when people make mistakes,” he said in an interview with Variety out Wednesday. “And we have grace.”
To recap: When Gascón’s past bigoted tweets resurfaced early in the year, a firestorm erupted that pushed Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical out of the top spot for Best Picture. After issuing an apology, the actress stepped away from the campaign trail, opting out of several appearances and awards celebrations and making a teary appearance on CNN en Español in which she defended herself from the outrage. “Yes, the truth is, these have been very, very difficult days,” she said on the show, adding later: “Some people have told me not to even think about attending the Oscars gala because maybe I shouldn’t.”
She did end up attending and her co-star Zoe Saldaña won Best Actress while “El Mal” won Best Original Song, but as expected, “Emilia Pérez” did not take home Best Picture. “It was the frontrunner,” Sarandos said. “But it was never a slam dunk that ‘Emilia Pérez’ — with all its innovation and thrills — would win Best Picture. It was a great movie, a great campaign, and I’m bummed.”
During the scandal, the same question kept coming up over and over: Why didn’t Netflix vet Gascón’s social media before launching the months-long awards campaign that began when the film debuted at Cannes. As to whether the streamer will take a closer look at talent’s social media history in the future, Sarandos only said, “What we’re typically vetting for is mostly headlines. Did someone’s social media stuff create headlines before? Then again, I’m not on Twitter, so I’m not going to come in and look at someone else’s Twitter.”
“Emilia Pérez” is available to stream on Netflix.
