The Brett Cooper Show
Why Hollywood Turned on the Trans Mexican Cartel Movie | Episode 9
Thu, 27 Feb 2025
The trans Mexican cartel movie “Emilia Pérez” went from being favored to win best picture at the Oscars, to now being public enemy number 1 in Hollywood — here’s why.The Brett Cooper Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bbrettcooperBy joining Cooper Confidential you are directly supporting me and my team. You’ll get ad-free episodes, exclusive ‘Dear Brett” videos, and a private newsletter Sign up now: https://cooperconfidential.supercast.com/NEW MERCH IS LIVE! Order now: https://brettcoopershop.com/Get 3 months free and check out over 10,000 guided prayers and meditations that will all help you grow closer to God when you sign up at http://hallow.com/cooperHead to https://www.qualialife.com/COOPER for 15% off your purchase of Qualia’s products.Good Ranchers: Get a year of FREE MEAT and $40 off with code BRETT: https://www.goodranchers.comDaniel D'Addario -- Chief correspondent at Variety, author of the novel “The Talent” (Gallery Books/Scout Press, 2025). https://www.danieldaddario.com/
Chapter 1: What is the controversy surrounding 'Emilia Pérez'?
The point here that I am trying to make about all these PR strategies, about all the strategies, is that something happened with Amelia Perez. Something that many believe is a bit suspicious and possibly conspiratorial.
Guys, there has been a scandal unfolding in Hollywood that I've wanted to talk about for the last couple of months, but I'm kind of glad that I waited until just now because this involves Hollywood's awards season. This involves the Oscars, which are happening on Sunday night. You guys will be watching this on Thursday. So I have let all of this played out.
I have waited until this moment so I can hopefully bring you as up-to-date information as humanly possible, but we need to talk about The film to rule them all of 2025. The film that has literally shaken up the entire Hollywood filmmaking landscape. And no, I am not talking about It Ends With Us. That is shaking up the Me Too and legal landscape and the celebrity landscape.
But this, this other film is shaking up something completely different. Before we dive into this story though, if you want ad-free content, a weekly advice video, we just posted our first one called Dear Brett. If you want all of that and more, plus an exclusive newsletter, please check out my subscriber platform called Cooper Confidential. We will link it below in the description.
All right, so the movie in question, you guys might already know this. The movie in question is Amelia Perez. This is the queer trans Mexican musical. That has taken Hollywood by storm in 2024, 2025. My crew off camera is literally shaking their heads in disbelief. You heard that correctly. A queer trans Mexican cartel musical.
It is like they were playing charades or what's that game where you like pull out random things and you have to like, it's like an improv game. When I used to do improv, I used to do things with Second City in LA and you would have to pull random, you know, characters or scenes and landscapes and situations. You had to make something work. You had to like make a scene out of nonsense.
I feel like that is what Amelia Perez is. But of course, there is a real story here. And so Amelia Perez is about a Mexican drug cartel leader who fakes his own death to undergo gender-affirming surgery. And then she, now she, re-emerges onto the scene and tries to live this new life and is like re-welcomed by society and her family and her community as a woman.
And yes, all of this is happening through song because it is a musical. Here is a clip just to give you a taste.
Very nice to meet you. I'd like to know about sex change operation. I see, I see, I see.
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Chapter 2: Why did 'Emilia Pérez' gain so much attention?
The production team, Netflix, the Oscars campaign has removed Gascon from all four-year consideration materials, which, guys, if you live in Los Angeles or if you're involved in the film industry at all, during this time of year, everything that you see in LA are huge posters of all of these films.
And Amelia Perez, with 13 nominations, I am sure, was everywhere, featuring, in huge fashion, Carlos Sofia Gascon. Well, Gascon has now been removed from all of that, which I'm sure was very expensive. And the cast has, of course, distanced themselves as well, like you saw with Selena.
Zoe Saldana, who was another star of the film, said, quote, I do not support any negative rhetoric of racism or bigotry towards any group of people. That is what I want to stand for. Quote, I am allowing myself to still experience that joy because we did come together as a team, but we are also individuals who are responsible for everything we say and everything we do.
Now, in addition to the fellow actresses, the director also chimed in, and this is really where it gets interesting. I want you to think about this director and think, about what he's saying in this quote because the context is just extra special. So the director does this interview with Deadline and he says, yes, very unfortunately it is taking up all the space.
The scandal is taking up all the space. And that makes me very sad. It is very hard for me to think back to the work that I did with Carla Sofia, the trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust.
And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It is as if you fall into a hole because what Carla Sophia said is inexcusable. And then Deadline responded and said, have you spoken to her?
And he responded and said, no, I have not spoken to her and I don't want to. So again, everybody is icing out Gascon. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can't interfere in and I really don't understand why she's continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why? I don't understand it. And what I don't understand about this, too, is why she's harming people who are very close to her.
I am thinking in this thing of how hurting others—by the way, he's French, so this is probably translated, so if it seems grammatically weird, that is why— I'm thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she is hurting the crew and all of these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I am thinking of myself. I am thinking of Zoe and Selena.
I just don't understand why she is continuing to harm us. I'm not getting in touch with her right now because she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions. Now, whether or not you agree with Gascon's tweets, whether or not you feel like they were too far, This response is just ridiculous. These were things that Gascon posted, you know, three years ago at this point.
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