Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón made cinema history as the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but her time in the spotlight is now being overshadowed by her own controversial comments from the past.
The Spanish star, 52, made a public apology this week for her previous commentary on the Muslim culture and even the Oscars themselves. She also dragged George Floyd and Miley Cyrus into her controversial tweets.
Highlights
- Karla Sofía Gascón made history as the first transgender Best Actress Oscar nominee.
- Gascón issued an apology following backlash over past controversial social media posts.
- Old tweets targeted George Floyd and made Islamophobic remarks, sparking public outrage.
- 'Emilia Pérez' received 13 Oscar nominations this year.
Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón apologized for her controversial comments from the past
Image credits: Medios y Media/Getty Images
After Gascón became the first transgender performer to be nominated for the Oscar in the Best Actress category, her old posts resurfaced and sparked widespread controversy.
Some of the since-deleted posts went as far back as 2016.
This week, the actress released a statement, calling herself a member of the “marginalized community” and apologizing for her past comments.
Image credits: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she said, as quoted by People.
“As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain,” she continued.
“All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
The Spanish star was slammed for her resurfaced tweets over the last few years
Image credits: Netflix
Back in 2020, the Spanish star made George Floyd the subject of one tweet, calling him a “drug addict swindler” that “very few people even cared about.”
However, the rest of the tweet appeared to speak out against racism, as she said his death served as a reminder of how some people still discriminate against Black people.
“They’re all wrong,” she said.
Among other resurfaced posts, there were a couple of messages in which she made Islamophobic comments as well.
In one tweet, Gascón shared a photo of a Muslim family, where the woman was dressed in a burka and had her face completely covered while at a restaurant.
Gascón targeted Muslims in multiple posts that have since been deleted
Image credits: karsiagascon
“Islam is wonderful, without any kind of sexism,” read a rough translation of her tweet.
“Women are respected, and when they are respected a lot, they leave a little square on their face so that their eyes and mouth can be seen, but only if they behave well,” she went on to say.
“Although they dress like that for pleasure. What a DEEP DISGUSTING HUMANITY.”
In another since-deleted post from 2020, she asked: “Is it just my impression or are there more muslims in Spain?”
Image credits: Netflix
She claimed in the post that she saw “more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels” when she would pick up her daughter from school.
“Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic,” she added.
Another 2021 post saw Gascón attacking “all” beliefs of “m----s that violate human rights.”
“I am so sick of so much of this s---, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the f---ing beliefs of m----s that violate human rights,” Gascón wrote in another post.
“Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic,” the actress wrote in one post
Image credits: Netflix
In recent weeks, Gascón also came under fire for her comments on the 2021 Oscars, seemingly suggesting that the awards show didn’t have enough diversity.
“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.”
Netizens slammed Gascón for her resurfaced comments, with one saying: “They better not give that oscar to her.”
“Atp, Emilia Perez should have all its nominations revoked,” another said.
“Disqualify her right now,” another said.
Netizens sharply criticized Gascón for dragging Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth in one tweet
The onscreen artist was also slammed for dragging Miley Cyrus and ex-husband Liam Hemsworth in a tweet.
Sharing an article about Miley Cyrus and her ex, Kaitlynn Carter, Gascón wrote: “Boy, poor Liam, this is what happens when the National Family Front forces you to marry a mustachioed man,” she said.
“Even if with this evil, horrible, unnatural, lesbian perversion, they're going to hell,” concluded the cryptic message.
Image credits: mileycyrus
Netizens weren’t happy with the comments, with one saying: “This is disgraceful and disgusting to speak about other women in such a way. Like wow.”
“This is disgusting and homophobic,” another said.
“Emilia Perez should have all its nominations revoked,” a social media user said after the controversial tweets resurfaced
Image credits: Netflix
Gascón has been acting since 1995 and would regularly appear in Mexican telenovelas before transitioning with the support of her now-wife, Marisa Gutiérrez, and their daughter in 2018. The actress was 46 years old at the time.
“[Marisa has] always known who I am, but turned to stone when she saw me as a woman,” Gascón told Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2024 about her transition.
Image credits: Samuel Ramos/Pexels
In the Jacques Audiard-directed film Emilia Pérez, Gascón played a Mexican black market boss who fakes his own death and undergoes gender-affirming surgery.
Gascón recently spoke about people conspiring to tarnish her image, along with the acclaimed film’s. She suggested these people were “working with” fellow Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres.
The actress also came under fire for talking about fellow Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres
Image credits: The Hollywood Reporter
“I have never, at any point, said anything bad about Fernanda Torres or her movie,” she said in Spanish in an interview with Brazilian outlet Folha de S. Paulo.
“However, there are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and ‘Emilia Pérez’ down,” she added. “That speaks more about their movie than mine.”
In a later statement to Variety, she clarified her comments and said she is an “enormous fan” of Torres, who was nominated for her role in I'm Still Here.
“In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience,” she added. “Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”
Emilia Pérez received 13 Oscar nominations.
Netizens joked about how the “Netflix PR team can't keep up with her mess"
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