'Emilia Pérez' Director Condemns Karla Sofía Gascón: 'I Haven't Spoken To Her And I Don't Want To'

En español

Jacques Audiard, the director of 'Emilia Pérez,' has denounced Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón following the controversy surrounding her resurfaced social media comments.

Gascón stars in the film and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. However, following the renewed attention to posts on social media that were seen as Islamophobic and racist, Netflix has removed her from all promotion of the film and will not include her in the Oscars campaign for the film.

In an interview with Deadline, Audiard has condemned her comments and said he hasn't spoken to her.

"I haven't spoken to [Gascón], and I don't want to...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," the director stated.

Gascón issued a statement on her social media and apologized following the controversy. However, she also reportedly went against Netflix's wishes by granting an interview to the Colombian journalist Juan Carlos Arciniegas on CNN en Español.

In the emotional interview, the Spanish actress apologized for some of her statements but also said that some of the posts attributed to her were fabricated. She then made a now-deleted Instagram post tagging multiple news outlets and calling for help and advice.

Audiard further criticized Gascón's response by stating "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."

At a Q&A in London, Gascón's co-star Zoe Saldaña also responded to the controversy surrounding the Spanish actress.

"I'm still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I'm sad. It makes me really sad because I don't support [it], and I don't have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group. It saddens me that we are having to face this setback right now. But I'm happy that you're all here and that you're all still showing up for Emilia because the message that this film has is so powerful and the change that it can bring forward to communities that are marginalized day in and day out is important."

The French director also addressed the controversy surrounding the comments he made about the Spanish language while on the film's press tour. In an interview with Konbini, Audiard stated that he was drawn to making a film in Spanish because the language was one "of undeveloped countries, the poor, and migrants."

In response, Audiard reiterated his love for the language and stated "Just to give you a little background, I've often made films in cultures that were not those of my native language. I've made a film in Tamil, I made a Western, in English. I'm drawn to things that don't belong to the domain of my native language, and I happen to enormously love the Spanish language... Spanish is such a rich language that crosses borders. What's been said about my statement is actually exactly the opposite of what I think. I worked five years on this film and for it to now be denigrated in this way, it's really simply too much.

Despite the "setback" that Saldaña mentioned, Audiard said he's not giving up on the film's awards campaign.

"Well, I'm certainly going to participate, but for the moment there's something sad about it. I thought I was coming back here full of enthusiasm and now there's a sadness that we have to get past, if things aren't clear, then we need to shed light on them and we're going to have to spend time on continuing to really defend this film.

I'm not alone in this business. There's Zoe. I want to and I'm going to champion and defend her. I would never let her go. There's my extraordinary crew that worked on this film, with faith and enthusiasm. There's no way I'm letting go of these people."