Selena Gomez Is Finally Talking About All That Emilia Pérez Drama
“Some of the magic has disappeared.”
Although Selena Gomez’s movie Emilia Pérez has been the big winner of awards season so far, it’s become more embroiled in controversy as the Oscars approach. Gomez has remained quiet on most of the bigger issues that have plagued the film, but she recently shared how she’s feeling about the drama amid the Emilia Pérez Oscar campaign.
“Some of the magic has disappeared, but I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done,” Gomez said at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 9. “I’m just grateful. I live with no regrets and I would do this movie over and over again if I could,” she added.
The response comes after the movie’s star Karla Sofía Gascón was called out for her expansive history of racist tweets. After a few interviews attempting to explain the posts, Gascón has vowed to stay silent for the rest of the Oscars campaign.
But Emilia Pérez had incited backlash even before the Gascón incident. Upon release, the film was called out for its non-Mexican cast, and French director Jacques Audiard admitting he didn’t study Mexico much when writing the movie.
Gomez herself was criticized for her lack of proficiency in the Spanish language. During a podcast appearance, Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez said he found Gomez’s dialect “indefensible.” Gomez responded in a comment under the clip of Derbez. “I understand where you are coming from,” Gomez said. “I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.”
The film has also been widely denounced for its representation of trans people. GLAAD called the movie a “profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman,” claiming it “recycles the trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés of the not-so-distant past” in ways that are “offensive and even dangerous.”
Despite the backlash, Emilia Pérez has been the darling of awards season, cleaning up at the Golden Globes and garnering the most Oscars nominations of any project with 13 nods. However, as the controversies become more public, predictions are starting to veer elsewhere for what could be this year’s big winner.
