Netflix is looking at “reevaluating” the process of vetting social media accounts for incoming talent after the “Emilia Pérez” awards campaign fielded controversy for the film’s star Karla Sofía Gascón, who drew backlash for resurfaced racist internet posts in January.
“We’re all having conversations about that,” Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said on Puck and The Ringer’s podcast “The Town with Matthew Belloni.” “Are we going to actually look at people’s personal social media, of the tens of thousands of people every single day around the world, of the amount of original film and TV that we make, and licensing, and co-productions? We have to extrapolate, in a practical sort of way, what that means. … But I still think the hardest thing is that it really does detract from a movie that is so special.”
Along with arguing that there are practical difficulties to vetting massive volumes of social media activity, Bajaria also noted that it is “not really common practice” to do so. However, the scandal around Gascón has the industry at large “reevaluating” that.
“You know what I think is really a bummer? For 100 very incredibly talented people who made an amazing movie — and if you look at the nominations, and all of this awards love that it’s received — I think it’s such a bummer that it’s distracted from that,” Bajaria said. “It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way. … It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And our awards team. They did an incredible campaign for that movie.”
The “Emilia Pérez” awards campaign was turned upside-down in January when Gascón’s previous internet posts were resurfaced by culture writer Sarah Hagi. The messages included anti-Muslim hate speech, a thread about the murder of George Floyd and racist jabs about diversity at the Oscars. Variety later reported that Netflix is no longer covering expenses for Gascón’s travel to awards shows.
“If you asked me today, everything that I know, we would still buy the movie today,” Bajaria said. “That movie is incredible and it’s creative and it’s bold. That’s what you want. You want to take those big swings.”
“Emilia Pérez” is the most-nominated film at this year’s Oscars, with 13 nominations including nods for best picture, best director for Jacques Audiard, best actress for Gascón and Zoe Saldaña for supporting actress.
