If nothing else, this year’s Oscar race has given us a case study that will be taught at PR crisis management training courses for years to come. Until a couple of weeks ago, Netflix’s Emilia Perez – a Spanish-language French musical film focusing on a transgender crime boss in modern Mexico – was a resounding success story. It won big at Cannes and the Golden Globes, swept the European Film Awards, and was nominated for a record-breaking 13 Oscars. The fact that the film was disliked by many trans critics, and so despised in Mexico that the country’s consumer protection agency had to weigh in over the vast number of cinemagoers demanding refunds, barely seemed an impediment. And then, in late January, it all came crashing down.
The film’s star, Karla Sofía Gascón, was this downfall’s expert architect – over the course of days, social media was flooded with tweets she had posted within the past five years expressing racist, Islamophobic or otherwise offensive sentiments. She apologised, once, twice, and then again, in an hour-long TV interview that was reportedly organised without the involvement of Netflix or the film’s team. Since then, the wheels have come off, and the car has spun into a ravine. Latest reports suggest that Netflix has distanced itself from Gascón, removing her from any promotional plans, redesigning the posters to spotlight her supporting co-star Zoe Saldana – whose own status as presumptive best supporting actress winner has been thrown into jeopardy – and refusing to cover any of Gascón’s travel costs for awards season. The film’s director, Jacques Audiard, meanwhile condemned Gascón in pretty robust terms, stating: “I just don’t understand why she’s continuing to harm us.” Leaving aside the considerable and discomfiting irony of a film that sold itself as a landmark in trans representation quite literally erasing its trans star from the narrative, I think it’s clear that the protracted scandal has thrown the Oscar race wide open. But whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen.
