One of the biggest stories coming out of the Oscars isn’t even about the winners. That being the revelation of a bunch of racist tweets from Best Supporting Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón for her work in Jacques Audiard‘s “Emilia Pérez” has overshadowed the film’s 13 award nominations. Now, the film’s director has chimed in in an exclusive interview with Deadline on the matter, which sees Audiard disavow Gascón’s posts and is moving his energy into defending his movie.
When asked if it was frustrating that the posts have been eclipsing the celebration of the film Audiard said, “Yes. Very unfortunately, it is taking up all the space, and that makes me very sad. It’s very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía. The trust we shared and the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust. And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course, that relationship is affected. It’s as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.”
“I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why? I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand about this, too, is why she’s harming people who were very close to her. I’m thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she’s hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I’m thinking of myself, I’m thinking of Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don’t understand why she’s continuing to harm us. I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions.”
Finishing up on the matter of Gascón not owning up to those comments and not realizing her words hurt others, “Absolutely not. She’s really playing the victim. She’s talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising. It’s as if she thought that words don’t hurt.”
The sad part in all of this is that there was a level of proudness that Gascón may have been the first trans actress to land an Oscat statue, making overdue history, and now all that has been detracted by Gascón’s indefensible posts on social media that went after other races and religion with such vitriol.
For their part, Netflix has since removed Gascón from their For Your Consideration campaign, and it sounds like you’ll be hearing similar sentiments from others over the next month leading up to the Academy Awards on March 2.
