Emilia Pérez’s Controversial Camino

When the 2025 Oscars nominations are finally announced after delays, Emilia Pérez is expected to rack ’em up. The Spanish-language French film led the Oscars shortlist, won four Golden Globes, and has three SAG nominations, including Best Ensemble. But throughout, there has been an undercurrent of controversy. Following a drug lord who transitions and tries to undo the harm her past life inflicted, Emilia Pérez was written and directed, in Spanish, by a man who speaks no Spanish. The film has been criticized for its portrayal of Mexico, its trans representation, and even the accents of its actors. Below, a timeline of the controversies following Emilia Pérez on its camino to the Oscars.

May 25, 2024: Emilia Pérez wins the Jury Prize at Cannes. Adriana Paz, Zoë Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, and Selena Gomez win Best Actress collectively.

October 2024: Karla Sofía Gascón tells Rolling Stone that it was a “difficult job” mastering the Mexican accent, especially in France, where she doesn’t have the added gift of immersion. “Every Mexican I’ve met, except the one sitting in front of me, has said that my accent was impressive,” she said. “If I were to speak in my typical accent to you, you’d die.”

November 14, 2024: A clip of director Jacques Audiard circulates on Twitter, in which he says he “didn’t study much” about Mexico. “I kinda already knew what I had to understand,” he says.

November 15, 2024: GLAAD rounds up criticism that the film is poor representation for trans people, calling it “profoundly retrograde.” They quote PinkNews’ Amelia Hansford, who writes that Emilia Pérez is “sub-par, disingenuous, harmful nonsense,” as well as the Cut’s Harron Walker, who critiques the unrealistic depictions of gender-affirmation surgery, saying the film “displayed an understanding of plastic surgery that’s about as refined as McG’s recent Uglies.”

November 24, 2024: Mexican cinematographer and Pedro Páramo director Rodrigo Prieto tells Deadline he was “offended” by the film’s lack of authenticity. “First of all, I’m unhappy that the film was not shot in Mexico,” he says. “Secondly, why wouldn’t you include more Mexican people to participate in the production? Why not hire a Mexican production designer, costume designer, or at least some consultants? Yes, they had dialogue coaches, but I was offended that such a story was portrayed in a way that felt so inauthentic.” Prieto mentions one specific detail that rubbed him the wrong way: “You would never have a jail sign that read ‘Cárcel,’ it would be ‘Penitenciaria.’”

December 5, 2024: Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez calls Selena Gomez’s accent in the film “indefensible” on the Hablando de Cine Con podcast. Host Gaby Meza agrees, adding, “I feel like she doesn’t know what she’s saying. If she doesn’t know what she’s saying, she can’t give her acting any nuance.”

Gomez comments on the TikTok, writing, “I understand where you are coming from … I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given.” Gomez spoke Spanish as a child but lost facility with the language once she started acting in English. Earlier in the year, Gomez said relearning Spanish for the role was “wonderful. The experience was in a way reconnecting. I’m grateful for it. If anything, I hope this isn’t [the] last thing I do in Spanish.”

Derbez issues an apology on social media. “Dear Selena, I truly apologize for my careless comments — they are indefensible and go against everything I stand for,” he writes. “As Latinos, we should always support one another. There’s no excuse. I was wrong, and I deeply admire your career and your heart.”

December 9, 2024: Casting director Carla Hool says her team “did a big search” for Mexican actors but didn’t find any actors suitable for the main roles. Zoë Saldaña is American of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage, Karla Sofía Gascón is Spanish, and Selena Gomez is Mexican American. “So we had to figure out how to adjust authenticity … with the accents, and them not necessarily being native Mexican.”

January 5, 2025: Emilia Pérez wins four Golden Globes, including Best Picture — Musical/Comedy and Best Supporting Actress for Zoë Saldaña. The wins come under criticism for category fraud (for Saldaña), overly emotional speeches (again, Saldaña), and not enough discussion of trans rights (all speeches).

People share the gender-affirming surgery scene, reigniting the trans representation debate.

And more Mexican writers and actors criticize the film for an othering, inaccurate view of Mexico.

January 10, 2025: Adriana Paz, who plays Emilia’s lover Epifanía, defends the movie’s depiction of Mexico. Paz is one of the few Mexican actors in the film and shared the joint Best Actress award at Cannes. “I’ve heard people saying it’s offensive to Mexico. I really want to know why, because I didn’t feel that way. And I have questioned some people that I trust, not just as artists but as people, and they don’t feel that way, so I am trying to understand,” she tells IndieWire. “The first time that I saw it, I told Jacques, ‘You’re a genius.’”

“I told him the very first time that I saw him, ‘This is controversial, Jacques. It’s like, you can do bad things and then you can do good things, and you’re a saint,’” Paz says, referring to the film’s final scene, which implies Pérez achieves sainthood via her transition. “But also, everyone has a good and a bad side. There’s a lot of sicarios in Mexico that didn’t want to be sicarios; they were kidnapped by criminals when they were just kids, and they ended up in these criminalistic pacts. Are they bad? I mean, yes, but they are also the result of a history of violence and corruption. And maybe some of them wanted to try to change.”