Oof, the knives are certainly out for Emilia Perez during this Oscar Voting Szn. To be fair, Emilia Perez is probably the most controversial awards-contender we’ve seen in a while. GLAAD Media practically spat at it, Mexicans despise it, and there’s a growing body of evidence that Emilia Perez’s star is a terrible person. I’m talking about Karla Sofia Gascon, the first transgender actress to ever get an Oscar nomination. She’s Spanish, playing a Mexican character. There have already been so many controversies – the film used AI on Karla’s voice; Selena Gomez’s Spanish is apparently pretty terrible, and Karla blamed the backlash on… Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres. And now this… people did some digging on Karla’s social media, and she has a long history of saying offensive, bigoted and racist sh-t.
“Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón is under fire for a series of social media posts to her account on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which the actor appears to express controversial views on Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars.
The posts, many of which were deleted on Thursday after they were resurfaced by journalist Sarah Hagi, were largely posted between 2020 and 2021. One example, dated Nov. 22, 2020: “I’m Sorry, Is it just my impression or is 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.” (Variety has independently translated the tweets.)
Another post from Sept. 2, 2020, attached to photo of a Muslim family in a restaurant, including a woman in a burka, reads: “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.”
The commentary appears to extend to other religions as well. In a post from Aug. 16, 2021, Gascón writes, “I am so sick of so much of this shit, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the f–king beliefs of morons that violate human rights.”
Along with her posts about Islam, Gascón posted a long thread about George Floyd just days after he was killed by a police officer, inspiring protests across the U.S. “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,” she posted. “They’re all wrong.”
In a follow-up post, Gascón added, “Too many things to reflect on regarding the behavior of our species every time an event occurs. Perhaps it is no longer a question of racism, but of social classes that feel threatened by each other. Maybe that’s the only real difference.”
Gascón, who is the first openly trans actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, also weighed in on the Oscar ceremony from 2021, the first held following the COVID pandemic in which “Nomadland” won best picture. “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,” Gascón wrote. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”
I’m including Sarah Hagi’s screencaps of Karla’s tweets below. Karla really tweeted and said all of that. I remember when I covered Shakira and Gerard Pique’s split and falling out, and Pique said some really hostile sh-t about Shakira’s South American fans. Someone told me that many Spanish people still have a very colonialist attitude, mostly directed at Latin Americans, but it can go larger than that. It just feels like Karla is a very close-minded bigot and not some ally to marginalized communities in any way, shape or form. It’s like… Caitlyn Jenner, but Spanish. Also: Karla apologized last night, you can read it here – it’s not a good apology at all. They also found some horrible tweets about Angelina Jolie too.
it’s so insane that karla sofía gascón still has these tweets up. straight up have never seen tweets this racist from someone actively campaigning to win an ACADEMY AWARD. there are more than a dozen… pic.twitter.com/1rcNzkJXuo
— sarah hagi (@KindaHagi) January 30, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
