‘Emilia Pérez’ star Karla Sofía Gascón apologises after historic racist and Islamophobic tweets resurface
Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón is apologising for resurfaced tweets she wrote between 2020 and 2021 that disparaged Muslims, George Floyd, and diversity at the Academy Awards.
Gascón is a frontrunner for the ‘Best Actress’ award at the Oscars this year for playing a drug cartel leader in Mexico who starts a new life as a woman with the help of a lawyer.
In a 2020 post on Twitter (now X), the Spanish actor attached a photo of a Muslim family in a restaurant, including a woman in a burka, and wrote: “Islam is marvelous, without any machismo. Women are respected, and when they are so respected they are left with a little squared hole on their faces for their eyes to be visible and their mouths, but only if she behaves. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY.”
In a similar vein, she tweeted: “I’m sorry, is it just my impression or are there more muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”
In a tweet posted days after a police officer murdered George Floyd, sparking global protests against racism, she wrote: “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 also took aim at the 2021 Oscars, in which Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland won ‘Best Picture.’ “More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films,” she wrote. “I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”
After these and other tweets were uncovered, Gascón released an apology, saying (via Variety), “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalised community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
The past tweets only add fuel to the fire that Gascón sparked when she accused the publicity team behind fellow ‘Best Actress’ nominee, Brazilian Fernanda Torres, of attacking her online. “[T]here are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and Emilia Pérez down,” she wrote. “That speaks more about their movie than mine.”
This required a separate backtrack, in which Gascón said, “In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience. Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”
Gascón is the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Oscar and the first trans woman to win the ‘Best Actress’ award at the Cannes Film Festival. With 13 nominations, Emilia Pérez is a favourite at the Oscars this year, despite controversy surrounding its depiction of Mexico.
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