Finally, Netflix is addressing the major issues surrounding its top Oscar contender, Emilia Pérez.
When asked how she felt about singer Karla Sofía Gascón’s unearthed racist tweet history, Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria responded to the topic in an interview on The Town podcast.
Although Gascón is the first openly trans actress to gain an Oscar nomination and Emilia Pérez has had 13 Academy Award nominations, the acclaimed drama’s chances are thought to have dwindled as a result of the controversy.
“I think it’s really a bummer for the 100 incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie,” Bajaria said.
“And if you look at the nominations, and all of this awards love that it’s received, I think it’s such a bummer that it distracted from that. It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way [from] this incredible movie that Jacques Audiard — who is an incredible director — has made. It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And in our awards team did an incredible campaign for that movie.”
Asked if Netflix will reexamine its social media vetting process for talent on its projects in the future, Bajaria replied, “It’s not really common practice for people to vet social tweets that way … A lot of people are reevaluating that … I do think it is raising questions for a lot of people about reevaluating that process.”
When asked if Netflix was particularly reviewing that procedure, Bajaria acknowledged that the company was, but she also highlighted the challenge of such an undertaking from a logistical standpoint: “I think you also have to [ask]: Are we going to actually look at the personal social media of tens of thousand of people, every single day around the world, [given the] amount of original film and TV and co-prods that we make and license? It raises a lot of questions about what that should look like.”
Yet Bajaria also added: “If you ask me today, everything I know, we would still buy the movie today. That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold — that’s what you want, and it resonated with a lot of people this year.”
Actress Gascón, star of the Netflix movie Emilia Pérez, has faced intense scrutiny after past social media tweets with racially charged remarks resurfaced. Despite apologizing and denying claims of bigotry, Gascón’s reputation has been impacted.
