Karla Sofía Gascón admits she “contemplated the unthinkable” during racism controversy
Karla Sofía Gascón has admitted that the controversy caused by the resurfacing of her historic racist tweets hit her so hard that she “contemplated the unthinkable.”
The Emilia Pérez star shared an emotional statement with The Hollywood Reporter after the dust settled from an Academy Awards ceremony that should have been her crowning achievement. Instead, the furore surrounding her tweets – which took aim at George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement, Muslims, and the Oscars – overshadowed her performance.
Although she returned to attend the ceremony, she had no genuine involvement in the proceedings despite being nominated for ‘Best Actress.’
“Lately, as I have been the target of harmful words,” Gascón wrote, “I have also said hurtful things throughout my life that have caused others to feel offended—things done and said from fear, from my own ignorance, from my own pain, from the outside of that cold, upsetting shield.”
Gascón continued, “With no excuse, and without any intention to justify any of my past actions, I apologise to all I have offended at any point in my life and throughout my journey. I humbly ask for their forgiveness and, to honour their kindness and understanding, I promise I will commit to continuing to learn and listen, so as not to make the same mistakes in the future.”
The beleaguered star then delved into her mental health struggles in the last several months, which she claims took her to her lowest point. “Throughout different stages of my life, I have gone through dark moments—episodes in which despair led me to unexpected places,” she revealed. “In this last episode, the most talked about and most exposed of my life, several fake accounts were created in my name to add to the pain and confusion. Absurd and even delirious accusations were thrown at me, which deeply hurt my spirit. Things escalated to a point, and so quickly, that I couldn’t even breathe.”
“Amid this unexpected, devastating storm, there have been moments when the pain has been so overwhelming that I contemplated the unthinkable,” Gascón claimed. “I harboured darker thoughts than those I considered in some of my previous, no less intimate and personal struggles.”
“Now that the storm is calming down a bit, and the worst has passed (or so I hope), I start seeing clearly what I have learned,” she concluded. “I’ve learned that hatred, like fire, cannot be put down with more hatred. Offences cannot be erased with more offences, and mistakes cannot clean up other mistakes.”
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