To be perfectly clear, there was probably a version of these events in which Karla Sofia Gascon went on an American talk show and made a sincere-ish apology for all of her hateful tweets. She could have cried and accepted full responsibility and promised to do better from here. Would people buy it? No, but they would have given her credit for owning her mistakes, and some part of Emilia Perez’s Oscar campaign could have been salvaged. That version would have stopped the bleeding to some extent. The controversy wasn’t merely about the spectacularly awful tweets – it was also about the sh-tty way Gascon mishandled the situation, with arrogance, lies and a deep well of self-pity. Apparently, she refused to take Netflix’s advice and she spent the better part of the past week doing even more damage than anyone thought possible. So, now Netflix is washing their hands of Karla Sofia. She will no longer come to LA this week for various awards shows, and other Oscar nominees are asking to not participate in any event in which Gascon would be included.
This week, Emilia Pérez best actress Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón was expected to fly to Los Angeles from her home in Spain for a busy week of awards campaigning. On Thursday, Feb. 6, she was to be seated with her writer-director, Jacques Audiard, and co-stars, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, at the AFI Awards luncheon, a glittery gathering at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills at which each of the AFI’s top 10 films and top 10 TV shows of the past year have a table, and much mingling occurs.
On the evening of Friday, Feb. 7, she and her colleagues would have reconvened at the Critics Choice Awards, at a table in the center of Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, a giant space that will be packed to the gills with not only fellow nominees, but also dozens of selfie- and quote-seeking journalists. Saturday, Feb. 8, presented a dilemma for a lot of talent: The Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards are happening opposite each other, and Emilia Pérez is nominated for the top awards of both. Gascón was to be deployed to the PGA Awards, at Century City’s Fairmont Century Plaza hotel, where she was to serve as a presenter.
And then on Sunday, Feb. 9, she was to have made the drive up to Santa Barbara to be feted as one of this year’s nine Virtuoso Award recipients at an Arlington Theatre ceremony at which the honorees would be interviewed individually and then collectively. The others set to be feted include her co-star Gomez and fellow best actress nominee Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).
However, given the massive controversy that has engulfed Gascón in recent days regarding commentary that she posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) — posts about which Gascón has, in recent days, been regularly writing on social media and discussing in interviews, without consultation or coordination with Netflix, which owns Emilia Pérez’s distribution rights in the United States, Canada and the UK — The Hollywood Reporter has learned that she will not be coming to town at all.
Tensions are said to be high between Gascón and the streamer, which has invested millions in the film’s awards push. It was flourishing as recently as Jan. 23, when the film received a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, just one shy of the all-time record. The two parties are now said to be communicating only through Gascón’s agent, Jeremy Barber of UTA. And it is my understanding that there is no great interest on the part of Netflix to provide the usual courtesies afforded by a studio to an Oscar contender, such as transportation and accommodations, to facilitate her attendance at the remaining awards season gatherings.
The streamer is not the only party interested in distancing itself from Gascón. THR has learned that others who were to have attended some of the aforementioned events alongside the actress, such as the Santa Barbara Film Festival event, had indicated that they might have to cancel their participation if she did not cancel hers, out of concern that things could get very uncomfortable with her there.
THR’s Scott Feinberg (who wrote this ^ piece) also notes that Netflix is basically just focusing their efforts on salvaging Zoe Saldana’s Oscar chances in any way possible. This is basically unheard of though, for a studio/streamer to tell their star (and Oscar nominee) to stay home and not come out to schmooze or glad-hand. Netflix is definitely putting it out there that Gascon has not been listening to their advice, and that her self-pitying PR tour in recent days was not their idea. Variety also noted that Gascon and Zoe Saldana share the same PR firm – which would be awkward, except everyone is saying that people are only communicating with Gascon through her UTA agent. Netflix is also no longer paying for Gascon’s clothes or style team for any events – if she wants to attend any awards show, she’ll have to buy or borrow a dress on her own and pay for her glam squad out of pocket, not to mention hire her own car and driver. Yeah… I have NEVER seen anything like this during an awards season.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
