The last thing in the world I want to do is defend Karla Sofia Gascon, but I’ve been driven to it. My objection has always been that she was only nominated because she is transgender. She played a supporting role that was fine, not better than those veteran actresses who were sidelined so the Woketopians could “make history.”
I have been consistent on this from the minute I saw Emilia Perez in telluride. But I am a recovering virtue signaler so I didn’t feel the need to pretend I thought the movie was good. I did not. I have been subsequently embarrassed watching it sail through this year’s awards race and beat Anora and Wicked at the Golden Globes. Then to come in with 13 nominations and to be a Netflix movie on top of that and an “International Feature” that might win Best Picture made me feel like this was really the end.
But that doesn’t mean I think some offensive tweets should be the reason the film is taken down, or that Gascon’s entire life be destroyed over it. Look at yourselves. Look at what you’ve become. Have you no decency?
Scott Feinberg, the Penske machine’s Oscar reporter at Outlet #3 has gone overboard in his evaluation of Emilia Perez’ Oscar chances now that the tweets have been uncovered – Feinberg believes “she did this to herself.” Fine, but how does that excuse you and the entire industry for this house of cards you’ve propped up? She ruined things? Did she now?
Here is Feinberg raking her over the coals — how he was fooled by this wicked witch who hid her “dark side.” How did he purge his soul of this sinner? He must do damage control like everyone else who praised her and the film all of these months:
I have interacted quite a bit with Gascón over the past few months at various festivals, events, interviews and Q&As, and saw no indication of this dark side. She had an unmistakably special bond with her costars, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, and her director, Jacques Audiard. Often, she was accompanied by her young daughter, who struck me as a really impressive and terrific kid, and who must be feeling a lot of pain right now.
Beyond that, there is this: one doesn’t have to like Emilia Pérez to recognize that Gascón gave a courageous and daring performance in the film, and that her awards season success represented hope and progress for a lot of other people. Under different circumstances, she would have gone on to be celebrated at the Oscars, win or lose, and would have eventually wound up on a wall at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, described as a trailblazer alongside the likes of Sidney Poitier and Kathryn Bigelow.
But now, as a result of her behavior, her chances of winning the best actress Oscar, which were mixed to begin with, have been extinguished, and it’s possible that the same can be said for her future in the business altogether. And she has also severely damaged the Oscar prospects of her film — which was arguably the frontrunner for the best picture Oscar, having received a field-leading 13 nominations, just one shy of the all-time record — and, most unfairly of all, the prospects of her colleagues who were also nominated for the film, including Saldaña, who has been the best supporting actress frontrunner for months. Based on my conversations in recent days with Academy members, many are going to have a hard time voting for Emilia Pérez in any category, given that Emilia Pérez herself has become toxic.
What a load of garbage. First off, Emilia Perez and Gascon’s performance aren’t in the same league as Sidney Poitier and Kathryn Bigelow. Is he out of his mind? The only reason for this film’s success is that the Hollywood machine is addicted to virtue signaling. They need to keep finding ways to move the needle, to “make history” one more time. And in seeking yet another high, they’ve lowered their standards so that now they just mainline the drug, quality be damned.
This was not happening because Karla Sofia Gascon gave a great performance and if people like Scott Feinberg believe she did (I do not) then they should not take this any further. It is not a question of character. It’s a question of ability. And Academy voters changing their vote simply because they discovered their religious icon of virtue was an actual human being then they should drop out of the Academy. These awards should be based on merit. I know they aren’t anymore, especially not for this movie, but they should be.
Gascon was thrust into this position at Cannes when all of the Woketopians reached paroxysms of ecstasy when the film screened. So much so that they gave the award for Best Actress to all three of the actresses in the film:
Most people thought Demi Moore would win for The Substance but no, virtue signaling had to take center stage so everyone could pretend like they have a greater purpose in life as GOOD PEOPLE DOING GOOD THINGS. And now, they’re all caught out and their response to all of this is pretend like they had nothing to do with this charade, this house of cards. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
Does that mean I think Karla Sofia Gascon should be in the Oscar race at all? No, I do not. I think it is wokeness gone way too far and it’s ruined the Hollywood brand, not to mention the Oscar brand. And look at all of these folks re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic purging one last person, raking her over the coals, destroying her just because WAAAAA our little fantasy didn’t work out.
Feinberg, and others, are now trying to offload what has been a big embarassment for all of them because none of them had the guts to call out Emilia Perez for what it was. And as the discourse around the movie made it abundantly clear that people saw a Crash-like disaster coming from a mile away, these folks began looking for the exit and now they’ve found it, the perfect way to distance themselves from the movie without looking like the bad guys. Congratulations! You twisted yourselves into pretzels once again to come out the other side clean.
Anyway, I was enjoying watching all of the hypocrisy exposed until I watched Gascon on CNN. Now I’m disgusted and enraged that it has gone this far. What the hell is wrong with these people? How sad all of this has become, this ridiculous industry full of people who seem to believe themselves to be our moral betters. Well, I got bad news for all of them. They are not. They are just as flawed, just as imperfect as Karla Sofia Gascon. Maybe they were smart enough to hide their thoughts on Twitter, but I can promise you, in private, they have said things and thought things that would “get them in trouble” with the woke scolds.
The same thing is true that’s been true for almost ten years by now. The same lessons apply, ones I’ve been repeating for so long they’ve worn out the groove: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones and yet, here we still are.
Destroy this person, destroy that person all in the name of what: UTOPIA. It’s nauseating. That she should be made to feel this way over TWEETS in complete insanity.
The problem with Hollywood, and those who cover it, is that people are afraid to say what they really think because they aren’t allowed to say what they really think. We’re all living in this bizarre imaginary artificial world where we’re all expected to say and do everything exactly right so we don’t awaken the monster. It’s one of the many reasons Hollywood is imploding.
You will hear not one word from Feinberg about the bigger scandal here, that Gascon took the place of more deserving actresses and that the entire awards industry played along, said nothing, and ushered along a pretty bad movie because they wanted the high of making history. No one told Gascon that she was also expected to be a saint and to never have said anything or thought anything the editors of Teen Vogue would not approve of.
As much as I enjoy watching this whole thing blow up in their faces, I’m not enjoying watching Gascon endure this much emotional pain. It isn’t worth it, honey, I promise. No check, no gold statue, no ticket back into utopia is worth feeling like this about yourself. The most important thing to know when trying to survive this madness is simply this: you know who you are. Your family knows who you are and that is all that matters in the end.