
Zoe Saldaña has responded to the current controversy surrounding her Emilia Pérez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón.
Gascón, 52, started receiving widespread backlash after previous social media posts — a few of which date again to 2016 — resurfaced on-line. In a number of the posts, Gascón targets varied spiritual teams, together with the Muslim inhabitants in her native nation of Spain. She additionally criticized George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in 2020.
“I’m nonetheless processing every thing that has transpired within the final couple of days, and I’m unhappy,” Saldaña, 46, stated of Gascón’s feedback throughout a Q&A in London on Friday, January 31, per The Hollywood Reporter. “It makes me actually unhappy as a result of I don’t assist [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any destructive rhetoric in the direction of individuals of any group.”
Emilia Pérez is a musical drama in regards to the chief of a Mexican cartel, performed by Gascón, who hires a lawyer (Saldaña) to assist pretend her dying and transition into a lady. For her function within the movie, Gascón grew to become the first transgender woman to be nominated for Greatest Actress at each the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
“I can solely attest to the expertise that I had with every person that was an element, that could be a half, of this movie, and my expertise and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender fairness,” Saldaña stated on Friday. “And it simply saddens me. It saddens me that we’re having to face this setback proper now.”
She went on to thank the viewers for “nonetheless displaying up” to see Emilia Pérez, emphasizing the movie’s message and “the change that it may deliver ahead to communities which can be marginalized.”
She added, “All that I can attest is that each one of us that got here collectively to inform this story, we got here collectively for love and for respect and curiosity, and we’ll proceed to unfold that message. That’s all we are able to say proper now.”
Gascón, for her half, has since apologized for the resurfaced posts and deleted her X account.
“As somebody in a marginalized neighborhood, I do know this struggling all too nicely and I’m deeply sorry to these I’ve induced ache,” she shared in an announcement through Netflix, per the Associated Press. “All my life I’ve fought for a greater world. I imagine mild will all the time conquer darkness.”
Emilia Pérez is already a film shrouded in controversy, having acquired criticisms from Spanish-speaking viewers for its awkward and stilted songs and dialogue in addition to the movie’s illustration of Mexico. Moreover, the movie was notably unnoticed of the nominations for the GLAAD Media Awards in January, with the LGBTQ+ non-profit beforehand calling the movie “a step backward for trans illustration” in a single article.
Many trans critics have cited a couple of subject with the movie, together with its unrealistic portrayal of Emilia’s gender-affirming surgical procedure.
“It’s not about offense or one thing being not allowed,” critic Drew Burnett Gregory wrote for Autostraddle. “It’s that it’s boring. I don’t perceive why a film that’s so bonkers in different methods chooses to undercut its strengths with this shallow understanding of its titular character.”

Zoe Saldaña has responded to the current controversy surrounding her Emilia Pérez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón.
Gascón, 52, started receiving widespread backlash after previous social media posts — a few of which date again to 2016 — resurfaced on-line. In a number of the posts, Gascón targets varied spiritual teams, together with the Muslim inhabitants in her native nation of Spain. She additionally criticized George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in 2020.
“I’m nonetheless processing every thing that has transpired within the final couple of days, and I’m unhappy,” Saldaña, 46, stated of Gascón’s feedback throughout a Q&A in London on Friday, January 31, per The Hollywood Reporter. “It makes me actually unhappy as a result of I don’t assist [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any destructive rhetoric in the direction of individuals of any group.”
Emilia Pérez is a musical drama in regards to the chief of a Mexican cartel, performed by Gascón, who hires a lawyer (Saldaña) to assist pretend her dying and transition into a lady. For her function within the movie, Gascón grew to become the first transgender woman to be nominated for Greatest Actress at each the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
“I can solely attest to the expertise that I had with every person that was an element, that could be a half, of this movie, and my expertise and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender fairness,” Saldaña stated on Friday. “And it simply saddens me. It saddens me that we’re having to face this setback proper now.”
She went on to thank the viewers for “nonetheless displaying up” to see Emilia Pérez, emphasizing the movie’s message and “the change that it may deliver ahead to communities which can be marginalized.”
She added, “All that I can attest is that each one of us that got here collectively to inform this story, we got here collectively for love and for respect and curiosity, and we’ll proceed to unfold that message. That’s all we are able to say proper now.”
Gascón, for her half, has since apologized for the resurfaced posts and deleted her X account.
“As somebody in a marginalized neighborhood, I do know this struggling all too nicely and I’m deeply sorry to these I’ve induced ache,” she shared in an announcement through Netflix, per the Associated Press. “All my life I’ve fought for a greater world. I imagine mild will all the time conquer darkness.”
Emilia Pérez is already a film shrouded in controversy, having acquired criticisms from Spanish-speaking viewers for its awkward and stilted songs and dialogue in addition to the movie’s illustration of Mexico. Moreover, the movie was notably unnoticed of the nominations for the GLAAD Media Awards in January, with the LGBTQ+ non-profit beforehand calling the movie “a step backward for trans illustration” in a single article.
Many trans critics have cited a couple of subject with the movie, together with its unrealistic portrayal of Emilia’s gender-affirming surgical procedure.
“It’s not about offense or one thing being not allowed,” critic Drew Burnett Gregory wrote for Autostraddle. “It’s that it’s boring. I don’t perceive why a film that’s so bonkers in different methods chooses to undercut its strengths with this shallow understanding of its titular character.”