Netflix boss Bela Bajaria has broken her silence to admit the controversy surrounding the leading actress of the streamer’s Oscar-nominated film Emilia Pérez “really is a bummer.”
Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón is nominated in the Lead Actress category, but has been on the back foot this Awards Season since tweets she previously posted making comments about Islam, the murder of George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars have come to light.
Speaking on The Town podcast, the streamer’s Chief Content Officer Bajaria said:
“I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie. 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 in our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie.”
Asked on the podcast if a social media vetting process would become required for casting decisions on projects, Bajaria said: “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.”
BBC News reports that Gascón has apologised for the tweets, saying she was “deeply sorry to those I have caused pain,” and that many of her comments had been taken out of context. However, she has not been seen at many of the usual pitstops for a high-profile awards season campaign, and ‘For Your Consideration’ posters no longer feature her alongside Saldaña and Gomez.
She is not scheduled to appear at the BAFTA Film Awards in London this Sunday evening, and it is not yet known if she will attend the Oscars on March 2. The film has received 13 Academy Award nominations, with Saldaña among the favourites to take home the statuette for Best Supporting Actress.
