The French musical crime thriller Emilia Pérez is being criticized by Mexican audiences for its portrayal of Mexican culture and experiences. The 2024 film, directed by Jacques Audiard, has won two out of its 13 Oscar nominations, along with four Golden Globes.
Despite the film being centered around Mexico, it has been pointed out how few Mexicans were involved in the production. For example, the three main actresses—Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez—were not of Mexican nationality. The trio was Spanish, American with Dominican descent, and American with Mexican descent, respectively. Gomez in particular, while of Mexican descent, had lost her knowledge of Spanish and needed to relearn the language for her role. Only one of the major cast members, Adriana Paz, had Mexican nationality.
According to the New York Times, casting director Carla Hool stated in a Q&A that although they scouted out Mexican actresses, they ended up choosing who they considered the best, even if they weren’t Mexican. Moreover, Audiard had also decided against filming in Mexico due to personal preferences, instead choosing to film entirely in France.
Many Mexicans have criticized the lack of research evident in the film, from the Americanization of Mexico’s daily life to the accents in the movie being inaccurate. Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor and comedian, called out Selena Gomez specifically.
“Selena is indefensible,” he said (translated from Spanish) on the “Hablando de Cine Con” podcast with Gaby Meza. However, since then, Derbez has apologized to Gomez for his statement via TikTok.
Moreover, the film heavily incorporates themes of cartel violence, which many Mexicans believe was executed in a way that romanticized instead of bringing awareness to the very real drug war that affects thousands of their people.
“There’s a drug war, nearly 500,000 deaths [since 2006] and 100,000 missing in the country… You are taking one of the most difficult topics in the country, but it’s not only any film, it’s an opera. It’s a musical… it’s like you are playing with one of the biggest wars in the country since the Revolution,” Mexican screenwriter Hector Guillén said to BBC. Guilén also made a post on his X/Twitter account calling the film a “racist Eurocentric mockery.”
Audiard has also been called out for his lack of respect towards Mexico and Hispanic people in general. An example includes his divisive comment on the language of Spanish itself.
“Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants” (translated from French), film director Jacques Audiard said in an interview with Konbini, a French newspaper.
In response to the film’s success, content creator Camilia Aurora mentioned Guillén directed and wrote the parody film Johanne Sacreblue, which deliberately uses French stereotypes to parody the French director Jacques Audiard’s depiction of Mexico in Emilia Pérez. The film, which was published on YouTube, Jan. 25, 2025, currently has over 3 million views.
In lieu of the film’s mixed success, it is up to the viewers to decide whether the awards given to the film were deserved.
