Netflix has been quiet since the social media past of its Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón surfaced in late January, forcing changes to and awkward conversations for her castmates on the awards campaign trail for Jacques Audiard’s ambitious Spanish-language drug cartel musical.
But on Thursday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria was asked what she thought of the controversy on an episode of the podcast The Town.
“You know what I think is really a bummer [is] for 100 very incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” she said. “If you look at the nominations and all of the awards love it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it’s distracted from that.”
Bajaria praised the awards campaign for the pic, which began way back in May after it hit the Cannes Film Festival, winning a combo Best Actress prize for Gascón, her eventual fellow Oscar nominee Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.
She also said that “if you asked me today, everything I know? We would still buy the movie today.”
“That movie is incredible — it’s creative and it’s bold and that what you want,” she added. “You want to take those big swings. And so yes, there’s incredibly talented people who made that movie that, by the way, resonated with a lot of people this year.”
After Emilia Pérez picked up a leading 13 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and a Best Actress nom for Gascon (a first for a trans actress) a journalist uncovered a a series of racist and Islamophobic past tweets. After attempts to defend them, Gascón has been skipping awards ceremonies including the PGAs, DGAs, Critics Choice, Spain’s Goyas in addition to pass on the BAFTAs this weekend. Meanwhile, her co-stars and Audiard have been asked about the controversy at every stop.
Last week, she wrote that she planned to be silent for the duration of Emilia Pérez‘s Oscar campaign to “allow the film to be appreciated for what it is.”
“
