Last month, Selena Gomez premiered her new movie ‘Emilia Pérez’ alongside Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofia Gascón. Gomez spent six months relearning Spanish for her role in the Spanish musical-comedy. While her performance in the film has been both praised and criticized, Gomez has addressed the comments about her Spanish.
Selena was fluent in Spanish until the age of 7, at which point she began her TV and film career. She explained to NPR, “Most of my jobs from that point on were English. And I moved from Texas to California to pursue my dream with Disney. And I, again, just lost it.”
While some critics believe Gomez’s performance could earn her a surprise Oscar nomination, others have been less kind. On the Hablando de Cine con podcast translated from Spanish by the Hollywood Reporter, Eugenio criticized Gomez’s Spanish, calling her performance, “Selena is indefensible.”
“I was there [watching the movie] with people, and every time a scene came [with her in it], we looked at each other to say, ‘Wow, what is this?'”
Gaby Meza commented, “Spanish is neither her primary nor secondary language nor fifth,” Gaby noted. “And that’s why I feel she doesn’t know what she is saying, and if she doesn’t know what she’s saying, she can’t give her acting any nuance. … And that is why her performance is not only unconvincing but uncomfortable.”
Gomez responded to the criticism after seeing the comments:
“I understand where you are coming from,” she said. “I’m sorry I did the best I could with the time I was given.” She added, “doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.”
Eugenio later apologized, calling his remarks “wrong,” “thoughtless,” and against “everything I stand for.”
Released on November 13th on Netflix ‘Emilia Pérez’ is a Spanish musical-comedy about a lawyer trying to help a drug lord build a new life.
