“To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter.”
In the heat of the 2020 movement against racism, Netflix felt compelled to write these words on corporate social media accounts five days after the death of George Floyd.
Five days after Karla Sofía Gascón’s racially insensitive social media history was excavated, Netflix has yet to comment publicly about its Emilia Pérez star.
Netflix spokespeople did not respond to requests for an on-the-record comment about Gascón, offering a window on the company’s reluctance to engage with a story that will run all the way to the Academy Awards on March 2.
Netflix’s silence leaves space for speculation about its reluctance to denounce the remarks made by Gascón, an interlocutor in the toxic corners of Twitter/X. It also raises questions about Netflix’s social media vetting processes, given the frequency and ferocity of Gascón’s output, first exposed by journalist Sarah Hagi.
In missives spanning years, the Spanish actress wrote that Islam was a “hotbed of infection for humanity,” described Floyd as a “drug addict swindler” and said that the 2021 Oscars were an “ugly” “Afro-Korean festival” after triumphs for Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah.
Elsewhere, Gascón pondered that she does not “understand so much about the world war against Hitler, he simply had his opinion about Jews,” and regularly used a Spanish word that translates as “faggot” in English. Gascón has since deactivated her X account.
These statements appear antithetical to the belief system championed by Netflix. The fact that the company facilitated and distributed Gascón’s original apology appears to support this. Other developments also seemingly reveal Netflix’s desire to distance itself from Gascón’s remarks.
Netflix let it be known that it had no role in setting up Gascón’s CNN interview over the weekend, in which she diluted her apology and ventilated the conspiracy that she was the victim of a smear campaign.
Sources say Netflix and Gascón are only communicating through the latter’s agent, while The Hollywood Reporter claims the company is not supporting her campaign stops at the Critics Choice Awards and Producers Guild Awards. Social media users also alleged that Gascón was stripped from a recent Netflix For Your Consideration poster. She remains present on an awards microsite for the Jacques Audiard film, which has a leading 13 Oscar nominations including for Gascón, the first openly trans person to be nominated in an acting category.
(L-R) Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón in ‘Emilia Pérez’
Netflix
So why the failure to condemn the social media slurs publicly?
A sympathetic take might be that Netflix has been caught off-guard by the saga and is in uncharted territory. It would only be human for Los Gatos decision-makers to be lamenting the self-combustion of a costly Oscar campaign. Executives may not wish to further jeopardize the success of others involved in the film.
Equally, Netflix’s silence leaves the company vulnerable to accusations that its pursuit of Oscar glory for Emilia Pérez is more important than calling out racism.
Others might argue that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is an enthusiastic proponent of freedom of expression. It is why top brass stood by Dave Chappelle after the comedian enraged Netflix employees by making jokes at the expense of the transgender community.
But unlike Chappelle, Gascón’s abrasive posts were not made within the confines of a creative endeavor. Netflix also made statements clarifying its position during the Chappelle scandal and publicly empathized with aggrieved staff members.
Netflix is nothing if not diverse. Nearly 56% of its U.S. workforce is made up of people from historically underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. The company has employee resource groups for Black, Asian, and Muslim insiders, some of whom may have been looking to their paymasters for leadership on Gascón’s tweets.
Instead, Netflix has stood back as others have condemned Gascón, not least Zoe Saldaña, who in a quietly powerful intervention last week said she has zero tolerance for “any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.”
In its antiracism credo of 2020, Netflix said: “We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.”
Netflix’s current silence suggests otherwise.