“Emilia Pérez” is set in Mexico and focuses on the story of a Mexican lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) who gets hired by a cartel boss (Karla Sofia Gascón) to help them retire and transition into a woman, something she has always wanted to do, showcased through song and dance.
With the movie getting nominated for 13 Oscars, and winning four Golden Globes, one would think that it would be highly liked and praised by most. But, ever since its release on Nov. 1, 2024, “Emilia Perez” has mainly gained backlash for its downplay of the Mexican drug cartel and portrayal of the Mexican community. It has also been in disagreement with the LGBTQ+ community for playing into trans stereotypes, causing some of the trans community to call the movie transphobic. These are just a few of the many controversies that have surfaced because of this movie.
The movie switches between English and Mexican dialogue in both speech and song, but the cast only has one actor who is native to Mexico: Adriana Paz. The lead, Gascón, was born and raised in Spain but moved to Mexico in 2009 to pursue acting and lived there for over a decade.
While these facts may seem small to some, to many in the Mexican community, they are defining. With little to no Mexican involvement in the production team of “Emilia Pérez,” viewers have been criticizing the movie. This is because there was not enough Mexican involvement in the cast and crew. Also because the movie was mostly filmed in France, but set in Mexico.
During an interview after the Oscars, Saldaña, who had just won her first Oscar, was asked about her thoughts on Mexicans being offended by the movie. “For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We weren’t making a film about a country. We were making a film about four women,” Saldaña said. This critique from the Mexican community about how “Emilia Pérez” stereotypes Mexico as poor and downplays the violence that cartels have caused within its communities.
Yet the controversies don’t end just with the Mexican community. The LGBTQ+ community was also deeply offended by the wrongful representation of a trans person. Gascón, who has been an openly trans actor for the past nine years, has been getting severe backlash for multiple things regarding the movie and her personal life.
With problematic posts from social media platform X resurfacing from 2020-2021 about topics such as George Floyd, Muslims, and diversity at the Oscars, Gascón has been under fire from many because of these posts. Movie producer Jaques Audiard has reportedly distanced the film from Gascón, and she was not a part of the industry gatherings on the weekend of the Oscars.
People have had problems not only with the casting and actors but also with the music. The song “El Mal” won “Best Original Song” at the Oscars, and most people are not happy with this fact. There is hate not only towards this song but also for the entire album as a whole.
Certain scrutiny towards the song “La Vaginoplastia,” which some are calling transphobic in the way it showcases surgeries. “La Vaginoplastia” leads to the assumption that getting sex-changing operations is a simplistic thing. The song downplays the operations that one would undergo if one were to transition. However, not everyone views the song and movie as a whole as transphobic, further deepening the controversy that “Emilia Pérez” has caused.
If the offensive takes on trans people and Mexican controversies weren’t enough, “Emilia Pérez” also won “Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy” at the Golden Globes this year, beating the greatly loved “Wicked.” With the AI, “Respeacher”, used to help some of the actors hit certain notes, many are deeply upset with the fact that “Emilia Pérez” won an award for being a musical. With the knowledge that it beat the amazing, raw talent that made up the other nominees for “Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy”, almost everyone disagrees that “Emilia Pérez” is undeserving of this award.
“Emilia Pérez” had so much potential to be an amazing movie that empowers women, specifically trans women, and really shine a light on the cruelties of the Mexican Cartel. But instead, it ended up causing many to be deeply offended and upset with the misrepresentations.
