The Emilia Perez fallout continues. Jacques Audiard, the film’s director, openly wondered why Karla Sofía Gascón continued to “harm” the cast and crew. Zoe Saldaña, who shared the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress prize with Gascón, said the Twitter controversy made her “sad.” Now, another joint winner of that Best Actress prize, Selena Gomez, has finally weighed in on the situation.
Gomez has been able to lay a bit low since those social media posts resurfaced because she wasn’t among the film’s record-breaking Oscar nominations (13, the most ever for a non-English language film), and therefore is not hitting the campaign trail as hard as the rest of the Emilia Perez pack. But she was on hand on Sunday to pick up the Virtuosos Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, where she assured fans that she’s doing really well. “Some of the magic has disappeared,” she admitted (via Variety). “But I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done and I’m just grateful. I live with no regrets, and I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”
Gomez’s name was directly dragged into the mess when someone shared a post that was purported to be written by Gascón years ago calling the pop star a “rich rat.” It’s one of the few posts circulated that Gascón specifically denied writing (“I have never said anything about my colleague, I would never refer to her that way,” she told CNN). But much like Netflix, Gomez managed to ignore Gascón’s involvement when discussing her Emilia Perez experience. “Just having someone see something in me besides the obvious was such a special experience,” she said. “The director [Audiard] just really trusted me, and I was so grateful because I’ve gotten to show people that I am capable of doing more. I hope this is just the beginning for me in this field.”
Emilia Perez managed to pick up a few prizes at Friday’s Critics Choice Awards, for Best Foreign Language Feature, Best Song (“El Mal”), and Best Supporting Actress for Saldańa. But voting for that ceremony concluded before Gascón’s posts resurfaced, and her controversy is still expected to have a negative impact on the movie’s Oscar chances.
