Have you seen the musical Emilia Perez, which received the most Oscar nominations this year? Some movie viewers were not pleased with the two Oscar Awards the international film received for Best Original Song and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña’s performance. Prior to the award buzz, Mexican viewers were particularly critical of the film’s lack of intention surrounding the authentic portrayal of their culture despite being centered in Mexico. Transgender folks were also critical of the harmful stereotypes the movie leans into surrounding trans identity. It also didn’t help that the main cast members were not Mexican and that the particularly racist tweets made by the lead actor, Karla Sofía Gascón, resurfaced after the film’s release. Here’s a breakdown of everything wrong with Emilia Perez and why trans and Mexican people reject the movie being praised as progressive representation by Hollywood.
Problematic Director & Casting
Jacques Audiard, the Director of Emilia Perez, has faced backlash due to his ignorant approach in bringing the film to life. As a Frenchman who does not speak Spanish, the primary language used throughout the film, Audiard made tone-deaf remarks regarding Spanish as the language of “developing countries, the poor and migrants.” He also chose to film the movie in France and told reporters at the 2024 Morelia International Film Festival that he did not feel the need to further research Mexican culture prior to filming. This is counterproductive to the sensitive Mexican themes of the movie, which addresses the numerous amount of missing Mexicans, including children, because of the drug cartel violence.
During an interview with The New York Times, Audiard also expressed that he doesn’t often enjoy musicals. This explains the lackluster quality of the music in Emilia Perez and why people have been making parodies of it on social media.
Audiard’s lack of care when tackling Emilia Perez further extended to the casting of the film, which only featured one Mexican actress in a supporting role. The casting director claimed that they searched far and wide throughout Mexico but didn’t find the ideal actors for the movie. This rubbed Mexicans the wrong way because Gascón, who plays the titular character of the film, is from Spain, meaning her Spanish accent differs from a Mexican accent. Despite Emilia Perez receiving the most Oscar nominations, people speculate that her resurfaced racist tweets impacted the number of awards the film was anticipated to receive.
Mexicans were also critical of Selena Gomez being cast despite being a third-generation Mexican American, mainly because she struggles with speaking Spanish. Her character, who was originally supposed to be from Mexico, was changed to a Mexican American to accommodate her language ability. This dilutes the authenticity of Emilia Perez due to Gomez’s disconnect from the language and lack of experience as someone living in Mexico.
Saldaña, who is a Dominican American, was part of the main cast, and like Gascón, her Spanish dialect differs from that of a Mexican. In addition to the poor writing of the characters and distasteful music, the lack of cohesiveness in the casting due to Audiard’s carelessness was at the root of everything wrong with Emilia Perez.
Mockery of Mexican Culture
Emilia Perez is set in Mexico and follows the story of the titular character, a transgender drug lord who undergoes a gender-affirming surgery to escape her past life. A major problem Mexicans had with the film was the lack of authentic Mexican representation, which was evident when the non-Mexican actors attempted to use lingo that was specific to the country. Their expression of the language sounded elementary, and some people claimed they struggled to understand what Gomez was saying through most of the film.
Another major critique from Mexicans is how Mexico is used as a backdrop to exploit the real-life issues faced by victims who are experiencing the consequences of drug cartel violence. The movie glorifies Emilia Perez as a hero because she chooses to open a non-profit to help family members find the missing people who were trafficked by the cartel she ran before her gender-affirming surgery. Mexicans impacted by cartel violence found the portrayal of the character to be tone-deaf due to Emilia Perez’s lack of accountability for her actions. The lack of authenticity and care when tackling these aspects of the movie led a lot of Mexicans to boycott the film when it eventually premiered in the country.
When Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez criticized Gomez’s accent throughout the film, he was met with intense backlash from her fan base to the point of having to issue a formal apology. However, during a press tour interview, Gomez herself admitted that she could have done a better job with her Spanish and that she did the best with the time she was given.
Another controversy surrounding Emilia Perez occurred after Saldaña won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. When interviewed by a Mexican reporter about how deeply hurtful the film was to Mexicans, despite Mexico being the heart of the movie, she doubled down and claimed the movie was not about a country but the women, who could have been from anywhere. Her response was not well received, with some people claiming you cannot separate the people from the context. Others have affirmed how Saldaña has a pattern of exploiting communities for her benefit, like her past blackface portrayal of American icon Nina Simone.
Trans Stereotypes
Despite hiring a transgender person for the role, trans folks have also spoken out about how Emilia Perez trivializes trans representation by playing into harmful stereotypes. This is evident as the trans identity of Emilia’s character is used to justify her escape from her violent past. The film attempts to vindicate her gender-affirming surgery as a transformative expression of Emilia Perez finally living in her truth. However, she is not portrayed as a trans woman who happens to be a ruthless drug lord; instead, she uses her transition as a vehicle to escape her old life. Considering her wife and kids believe she is dead, this harmful plot line affirms that her decision to transition was rooted in selfishness without a care about how it impacts her loved ones.
Emilia Perez does an unrealistic job at the portrayal of her gender-affirming surgery by using Saldaña’s character, a cis woman, as the facilitator of her transition. The use of lackluster music to list out the different surgeries she will undergo further trivialized the severity of gender-affirming care to the point that a viewer would question whether it was satire. The film also showcases Emilia Perez going through all her surgeries at once, which is not authentic to the trans experience.
Emilia later resurfaces into her wife’s life under the guise of being a cousin to her dead husband so she can reconnect with her kids. She convinces them to live with her so her wife can access the financial support left by her supposedly dead husband. This plays into the extremely harmful stereotype that trans people are intentionally deceitful about their gender identity. Instead, the reality is that trans people are more likely to be harmed for revealing their trans identity to potential romantic partners.
At the Oscars, when the director was asked if he would like to say something about the trans community due to the current anti-trans political climate, he expressed that he didn’t have the chance to speak since he didn’t win any awards. He affirmed that if he had won an Oscar for Best Picture or Best Director, then he would have spoken out. This reveals his true motives for this film: an Oscar grab at the expense of exploiting the lived experiences of trans and Mexican identities.
Emilia Perez is an example of how not to approach filmmaking, especially if you are speaking about marginalized identities you do not hold. While it is a great accomplishment that a trans actor transcended barriers and was accepted into mainstream media, this film was an unworthy medium to showcase trans identity. Considering it is a musical, it is comical that the music throughout the film waters down the message as opposed to elevating it. Utilizing established entertainers such as Gomez and Saldaña to appeal to mainstream audiences at the expense of authenticity is a Hollywood tactic that should be abandoned.
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