Did He Really Say That? Emilia Pérez’s Director Just Called Spanish a ‘Language of the Poor’
Emilia Pérez just can’t catch a break. From scathing reviews to pushback from the Mexican community, the movie has been embroiled in scandal and controversy since its release. The film, a Mexican story directed by a Frenchman and shot in France, is once again in the headlines for controversy. The director, Jacques Audiard, is making waves with his comments about the Spanish language.
In a French interview, Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard had some things to say about Spanish
“Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants,” Audiard said in the interview.
His comments have set off a firestorm of anger from the Spanish-speaking world. The classist and degrading remarks about Spanish, the fourth most spoken language in the world with 559 million Spanish speakers, ahead of French with 309 million French speakers.
People are not letting the comments go by without speaking up. Audiard has already had to apologize once while on a press tour around Mexico due to the film. In an interview with CNN, Audiard apologized after backlash and protests in Mexico following an abysmal reception from Mexican moviegoers.
“If there are things that seem shocking in Emilia Pérez, then I am sorry,” Audiard told CNN. “Cinema doesn’t provide answers. It only asks questions. But maybe the questions in Emilia Pérez are incorrect.”
Even though Emilia Pérez is a Spanish-language film set in Mexico, Audiard has kept his feelings about Mexico and Spanish a secret. The movie might follow a Mexican story, but Audiard was not interested in being authentic to that story. Instead, he said he didn’t want the film to explore Mexican culture but to use Mexico as the backdrop to the story.
This is Emilia Pérez’s second controversy just this week
Karla Sofía Gascón, nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Emilia Pérez, is feeling the heat after old tweets have resurfaced. The tweets, sent between 2020 and 2023, have angered people on the internet due to their content. The tweets attacked Muslim people and the Oscars, and made derogatory comments about George Floyd.
As Daniel D’Addario wrote in his column in Variety, her actions alone could cost the film its place at the Oscars. The political and cultural climates of the time factor heavily into how this has been perceived, and, as D’Addario argues, this is in line with President Donald Trump’s rhetoric.
People have a lot of questions about how the film received so many Oscar nominations
Emilia Pérez received 13 nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actress in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Directing, Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Music (Original Score), and Music (Original Song). The news surprised many people who couldn’t understand how the movie could receive such a large amount of nominations.
To be fair, the movie has not been rated evenly by critics and audience members. For example, on Rotten Tomatoes, the Tomatometer has Certified Fresh with a 74 percent score. Meanwhile, the Popcornmeter, the audience review site, rated the movie 19 percent with more than 5,000 ratings. It is a baffling moment in Hollywood.
