This week, Emilia Pérez best actress Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón was expected to fly to Los Angeles from her home in Spain for a busy week of awards campaigning.
On Thursday, Feb. 6, she was to be seated with her writer-director, Jacques Audiard, and co-stars, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, at the AFI Awards luncheon, a glittery gathering at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills at which each of the AFI’s top 10 films and top 10 TV shows of the past year have a table, and much mingling occurs.
On the evening of Friday, Feb. 7, she and her colleagues would have reconvened at the Critics Choice Awards, at a table in the center of Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, a giant space that will be packed to the gills with not only fellow nominees, but also dozens of selfie- and quote-seeking journalists.
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Saturday, Feb. 8, presented a dilemma for a lot of talent: The Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards are happening opposite each other, and Emilia Pérez is nominated for the top awards of both. Gascón was to be deployed to the PGA Awards, at Century City’s Fairmont Century Plaza hotel, where she was to serve as a presenter.
And then on Sunday, Feb. 9, she was to have made the drive up to Santa Barbara to be feted as one of this year’s nine Virtuoso Award recipients at an Arlington Theatre ceremony at which the honorees would be interviewed individually and then collectively. The others set to be feted include her co-star Gomez and fellow best actress nominee Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).
However, given the massive controversy that has engulfed Gascón in recent days regarding commentary that she posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) — posts about which Gascón has, in recent days, been regularly writing on social media and discussing in interviews, without consultation or coordination with Netflix, which owns Emilia Pérez’s distribution rights in the United States, Canada and the UK — The Hollywood Reporter has learned that she will not be coming to town at all.
Tensions are said to be high between Gascón and the streamer, which has invested millions in the film’s awards push. It was flourishing as recently as Jan. 23, when the film received a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, just one shy of the all-time record. But now, at the most inopportune moment, it is on life support thanks to the Gascón revelations.
The two parties are now said to be communicating only through Gascón’s agent, Jeremy Barber of UTA. And it is my understanding that there is no great interest on the part of Netflix to provide the usual courtesies afforded by a studio to an Oscar contender, such as transportation and accommodations, to facilitate her attendance at the remaining awards season gatherings.
The streamer is not the only party interested in distancing itself from Gascón. THR has learned that others who were to have attended some of the aforementioned events alongside the actress, such as the Santa Barbara Film Festival event, had indicated that they might have to cancel their participation if she did not cancel hers, out of concern that things could get very uncomfortable with her there.
Gascón may still attend awards season gatherings closer to home, such as the Goya Awards, Spain’s version of the Oscars, which will take place on Saturday. Some of her behavior is not seen to be as problematic in Europe as it is stateside, plus she can get herself to those gatherings. And given that she is fighting for her future in the business, she may well elect to do so.
In the meantime, with the final round of Oscar voting set to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Netflix is clearly undertaking efforts to try to keep Emilia Pérez’s other nominees — including and especially best supporting actress nominee Saldaña, who heretofore has been the clear frontrunner in her category — clear from the Gascón debris field.
Gascón has already been removed from email blasts and ad-reads promoting the film for awards. It takes longer to adjust outdoor advertising, but some billboards that now feature images of Gascón will soon highlight other castmembers in addition to her or exclusively.
Awkwardly enough, Gascón’s collaborators may still wind up in front of microphones this weekend accepting top prizes at the Critics Choice Awards (voting for which closed weeks ago, on Jan. 10) and the PGA Awards (voting for which closed on Jan. 30, just as Gascón’s tweets were coming to light). If they do, it will be fascinating to see if — and how — they address her absence.
