Selena Gomez Reacts to ‘Emilia Pérez’ Drama: ‘Some of the Magic Has Disappeared’

Selena Gomez finally opened up about the controversy surrounding her Oscar-nominated film Emilia Pérez over the weekend. 

Participating in a discussion panel while accepting the Virtuosos Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Sunday, People reports, the 32-year-old former Disney star said “some of the magic has disappeared” after offensive tweets from her co-star Karla Sofía Gascón surfaced online.

Gascón has been under fire since late January, after journalist Sarah Hagi surfaced a slew of insulting tweets from the actor.

“I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins. They’re all wrong,” she allegedly posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. 

“Too many things to reflect on regarding the behavior of our species every time an event occurs. Perhaps it is no longer a question of racism but of social classes that feel threatened by each other. Maybe that’s the only real difference,” she continued. 

Other tweets from Gascón included her opinions on who was winning at the 2021 Oscars. 

“More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M,” she wrote. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.” 

Despite the drama, Gomez said she didn’t regret doing the film.

“But I choose to continue to be proud of what I’ve done, and I’m just grateful,” she said during the festival. “I live with no regrets, and I would do this movie over and over again if I could.”

Gomex isn’t the only Emilia Pérez star who’s spoken up about the tweets. Zoe Saldaña also talked about the matter in an episode of Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. 

“I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word. because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” she said. “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here.”

Like Gomez, Saldaña remains unwavering in her support of the film as a whole.

“I’m allowing myself to still experience that joy because we did come together as a team,” she said. “But we are also individuals who are responsible for everything that we say and everything that we do.”

“I can still stand by a body of work that I can be proud of,” she later said.

In an interview with CNN en Español, Gascón responded to the backlash. 

“I have not committed any crime nor have I harmed anyone,” she said. “I am neither racist nor anything that all these people have tried to make others believe I am.”