Netflix finally break silence over Emilia Perez controversy that could cost them an Oscar trophy

Netflix’s Emilia Perez is one of the top Oscar contenders with a whopping 13 nominations including Best Picture. though it’s not without controversy.

The film follows Karla Sofia Gascon’s title character, a drug lord who enlists a lawyer (Zoe Saldana) to help him fake his own death and transition into a woman named Emilia Perez.

Gascon made history as the first openly trans actress to receive an Academy Award nomination, though she later came under fire when controversial tweets surfaced, calling George Floyd a ‘drug addict swindler’ and calling the Oscars themselves, ‘an ugly, ugly gala.’

The actress has since taken a vow of silence throughout the rest of this awards season, though many think the damage is done, and Gascon will not win an Oscar.

Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria has since spoken out about the controversy on The Town podcast with Puck founder Matthew Belloni. 

Bajaria revealed on the podcast that she thought it was a, ‘bummer’ that the actress’ controversial tweets will affect the film’s award season chances.

The film follows Karla Sofia Gascon’s title character, a drug lord who enlists a lawyer ( Zoe Saldana ) to help him fake his own death and transition into a woman named Emilia Perez

Gascon made history as the first openly trans actress to receive an Academy Award nomination, though she later came under fire when controversial tweets surfaced, calling George Floyd a ‘drug addict swindler’ and calling the Oscars themselves, ‘an ugly, ugly gala.’

‘I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,’ Bajaria began.

‘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,’ she added. 

‘The exIt 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,’ Bajaria continued.

‘It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And in our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie,’ she said.

Many of the tweets uncovered go back several years, though when asked if the controversy would change the way Netflix ‘vetted’ actors, she said that likely would not be the case.

‘It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that,’ she said.

‘I do think it is raising questions for a lot of people about reevaluating that process,’ Bajaria continued.

She added, ‘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?’

‘I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,’ Bajaria began

‘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,’ she added

‘It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that,’ she said.

‘It raises a lot of questions about what that should look like. If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today,’ she insisted. 

‘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,’ she insisted.

While this Netflix exec may think the controversy is a ‘bummer,’ that didn’t stop the streaming service from taking certain measures.

Netflix removed Gascon from a new poster that was released after the Oscar nominations and after the controversy first surfaced.