With the 97th Academy Awards ceremony about three weeks away, Netflix has finally spoken out about the biggest controversy of this awards season: the resurfaced X posts (formerly tweets) shared by Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón.
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Netflix's chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, addressed the Emilia Pérez controversies surrounding Gascón — the first out trans actor to be nominated for an Oscar — in an interview on The Town with Matt Belloni podcast. The Netflix executive said (via The Hollywood Reporter):
"I think it's really a bummer for the 100 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 distracted from that. It really has kind of taken the conversation in a different way [from] this incredible movie that Jacques Audiard — who is an incredible director — has made. It really is a bummer for a lot of the people, like [co-stars] Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. And [for] our awards team [which] did an incredible campaign for that movie."
When asked if Netflix will start vetting the social media of talent in the future, Bajaria noted that this is not a "common practice," but also that "a lot of people are reevaluating that." Ultimately, Bajaria thinks this controversy is "raising questions for a lot of people."
Nonetheless, Bajaria reaffirmed that "we [Netflix] would still buy the movie today. That movie is incredible, and it's creative, and it's bold — that's what you want, and it resonated with a lot of people this year."
Emilia Pérez was already the most controversial movie in the 2025 awards season, with many trans and Mexican critics complaining about how the movie depicted their communities. Then, Gascón came under scrutiny after X posts (formerly tweets) she shared from as recently as the 2020s resurfaced. Those social media posts showed her expressing Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, racist, and other offensive viewpoints.
In response to the backlash, Gascón independently set up an interview without Netflix's approval. This resulted in the streamer backing away from including the actress in events intended to promote Emilia Pérez for awards consideration.
Gascón has apologized for the offensive remarks.
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony airs Sunday, March 2, on ABC and Hulu. Emilia Pérez — nominated for 13 Oscars — is streaming on Netflix. You can also listen to Bela Bajaria's full interview on The Town with Matt Belloni below.
