Selena Gomez has spoken out following the recent scandal surrounding tweets by her Emilia Perez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón.
Last month, posts on X (formerly Twitter) from Gascón’s account had surfaced – these tweets had expressed hateful views regarding Muslims, the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the Oscars. She has since apologised for the comments, denying she is a racist, and has deleted her account on the social media site.
Fellow Emilia Perez co-star Zoe Saldaña first broke her silence last week (February 6), expressing in a podcast that she was “sad” and “disappointed” but she couldn’t “speak for other people’s actions”.
Now, Gomez spoke about the situation at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Sunday (February 9), where she received the Virtuosos Award.
“Some of the magic has disappeared,” she revealed, per Variety. Gomez echoed Saldaña’s previous comments about being “proud of” the work she did on Emilia Perez.
“But I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done and I’m just grateful,” Gomez continued. “I live with no regrets, and I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”
The headlines have thrown into question the film’s chances at Oscar glory. Emilia Pérez has achieved a record 13 nominations for this year’s ceremony, including Best Film, Best Supporting Actress for Saldaña, and Best Actress for Gascón – the first openly Transgender person to be nominated for the category.
On February 2, Gascón appeared on a TV interview emotionally defending herself, revealing she had received death threats and abuse following the controversy.
In defence of her posts, Gascón said that she relies on “irony, sarcasm and at times exaggeration and of course I use a resource to talk in third person, if what I wrote was written by someone who thinks in a negative manner,” and that she is “obviously” a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Whether Gascón or Emilia Pérez go on to win any Academy Awards will be revealed during the ceremony on March 2.