Emilia Pérez Director Has Not Spoken to Karla Sofía Gascón After ‘Self-Destructive Approach’

Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard shared that he has not spoken to Karla Sofia Gascón, who plays his film’s title character, since her controversial posts about Muslims and the killing of George Floyd resurfaced last week.

In an interview with Deadline published Wednesday, Audiard called the actress’ past tweets “inexcusable” and “hateful,” and accused Gascón of “playing the victim.”

“I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to,” said the director. “She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why? I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand about this too is why she’s harming people who were very close to her.”

He continued, “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].” Audiard added, “I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions.”

Last month, Gascón, the Oscar-nominated star of Emilia Pérez, deleted her X/Twitter account after several of her old posts that included offensive comments about Muslims, the police murder of Floyd, and more were uncovered. The actress called Islam an “infection for humanity” in one, and in another, described the migration of Muslims into Spain as a “planned invasion.” After Floyd’s murder, Gascón wrote in a thread that she thought “few people ever cared” about “a drug addict swindler.”

Her co-star Zoe Saldaña, who has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress, later said during a Q&A that she does “not support” Gascón’s posts and was still “processing” her feelings. According to previous reports from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has distanced itself from the Spanish actress. THR also reported that the Gascón was removed from email blasts and ad-reads marketing the film for awards season.

Editor’s picks

Over the weekend, Gascón joined CNN En Español for an interview in which she claimed she had been subject to “cancel culture.” Multiple outlets confirmed that Netflix was not involved nor aware that the actress was doing the CNN interview.

When remarking on Gascón’s lack of remorse, Audiard told Deadline, “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.”

For his part, Audiard said that he was going to continue to take part in events promoting Emilia Pérez, but acknowledged “there’s something sad about it.” He explained, “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.”

He continued, “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.”