"Emilia Pérez" director Jacques Audiard is speaking out on Karla Sofía Gascón's offensive posts amid the backlash that his lead actress has received in the past week.
In an interview with Deadline published Wednesday, Audiard condemned Gascón's tweets, which contained Islamophobic, racist and other offensive remarks in a wide range of topics.
"It's very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía," Audiard began. "The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust."
He continued, "And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It's as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable."
Since Gascón's comments have resurfaced, Audiard said that he hasn't spoken to her.
"I don't want to," he said. "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."
"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," he added. "I'm thinking of myself, I'm thinking of Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don't understand why she's continuing to harm us."
Audiard continued, "I'm not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions."
Following the comments she made, which resurfaced after writer Sarah Hagi published the screenshots of the comments on X from Gascon's now deactivated X account, Gascon shared a statement shared with Variety, apologizing "to those I have caused pain."
"All my life I have fought for a better world," she added. "I believe light will always triumph over darkness."
On Tuesday, Gascón took to Instagram and further shared a message about the controversy and spoke out on "cancel culture." She asked journalists and Hollywood experts how she could "move forward" from the controversy.
In his interview, Audiard said that he believes Gascón is "playing the victim."
"She's talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising," he said. "It's as if she thought that words don't hurt."
Aside from Gascón's comments, Audiard has also faced criticism about "Emilia Pérez," including his previous comments of Spanish language and his depiction of Mexican cartels and their victims in the film.
In a video published in August, Audiard told French culture publication Konbini that "Spanish is a language of developing countries, it's a language of countries of few means, of poor people, of migrants…"
He elaborated on those comments to Deadline, saying, "I've often made films in cultures that were not those of my native language."
He continued, "I'm drawn to things that don't belong to the domain of my native language, and I happen to enormously love the Spanish language. I wanted to make an international film. Now, if you're going to make an international film, there's not a lot of languages that you have to choose from. There's English and there's Spanish."
The director said the reception to his statement was the antithesis of the point he was attempting to make.
"Spanish is such a rich language that crosses borders. What's been said about my statement is actually exactly the opposite of what I think. I worked five years on this film and for it to now be denigrated in this way, it's really simply too much."
When asked, Audiard went on to address the criticism he has faced concerning his depiction of cartels and the victims of the criminal organizations in "Emilia Pérez."
"What shocked me is that either people haven't seen the film properly, or they haven't seen it at all and are acting in bad faith," said Audiard.
He added that cartels were not meant to be the main focus of the film, rather a "thematic" inclusion.
"The representation of the cartels in the film is thematic," Audiard said. "It's not something that I'm particularly focused on in the film. There's one scene that deals with it. The real thing that I'm interested in, that I was interested in doing, is that I wanted to make an opera. That demands a strong stylization. Well, that tends to be how opera is to have schematic elements. The psychology can be limited. Opera has psychological limitations."
"It seems I'm being attacked in the court of realism," said the director. "I've never claimed that I wanted to make a realistic work. If I wanted to make a work that was particularly documented, then I would do a documentary, but then there would be no singing and dancing."
'Emilia Pérez' actress Karla Sofía Gascón apologizes for past offensive social media postsHe added, "You have to accept that is part of the magic here. This is an opera, not a criticism of anything about Mexico."
"Emilia Pérez" earned 13 Oscar nominations, including best picture. Audiard is nominated for best director for the film as well as best adapted screenplay. Gascón is nominated for best actress. She is also the first openly trans actor to earn an Oscar nomination.
In January, "Emilia Pérez" won the Golden Globe for best motion picture (musical or comedy) and best original song for "El Mal." Zoe Saldaña also won the Golden Globe for best performance by a female actor in a supporting role in any motion picture.
Since then, Audiard said there's been a shift in the way "Emilia Pérez" is being received.
"The reactions have changed," he said. "The reactions now are not the reactions that we were having earlier."
He continued, "I've been working on promoting this film for a long time, since before Cannes, and the reactions that we're seeing now did not exist then and did not exist for a long time."
"I think the reactions around Mexico really changed around the Golden Globes, and now I can't not mention important facts like the fact that we've had many European prizes, aside from the Golden Globes," he said. "There has been this curious change in the recognition that we've gotten from the profession, the public, and then the social networks."
Amid the backlash toward "Emilia Pérez," Audiard said that he is going to continue to "really defend this film" and his cast and crew.
"I'm not alone in this business," he said. "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."
"Good Morning America" has reached out to a representative for Gascón, Audiard and Netflix.
