Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated star of the movie “Emilia Pérez,” has apologized for old, resurfaced posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which she, among other things, denigrated Islam and called George Floyd “a drug addict and a hustler,” the Associated Press and other outlets reported.
But Gascón’s apology may have come too late, with her posts possibly doing serious damage to the film’s chances of winning some of the 13 Oscars for which it’s nominated. The Spanish performer received praise for her performance as the title character, making history as the first trans actor to be nominated for a leading actor award. Moreover, the film is up for the top prize, best picture, as well as for best director, best adapted screenplay and for Gascón’s co-star Zoe Saldaña, for best supporting actress.
Still, Gascón’s social media controversy has led critics, including Variety writer Alison Herman, to doubt that “Emilia Perez” will be the Oscar juggernaut it threatened to be on March 2. That is, even with the backing of Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service, and a P.R. strategy built around Gascon and her “message of hope” for transgender people and others who may feel increasingly marginalized in the new Trump administration, as Herman explained.
Now, the “maelstrom” over Gascón’s tweets “jeopardizes not just (her) own campaign, but that of the movie named after, and thus inextricable from, her character,” Herman wrote in a column published Thursday.
But even before this controversy, “Emilia Perez” had become one of the most divisive Oscar front-runners in recent memory — this year’s “Oscars villain,” according to Yahoo Entertainment. This is a distinction given to films like “Crash,” “Green Book” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” which somehow rack up awards despite obvious artistic or thematic shortcomings.
For sure, “Emilia Perez” was a darling at the Cannes Film Festival, and it was praised for its genre-defying, “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”- style musical format, mixed with telenovela-level melodrama. It tells the story of a notorious Mexican drug cartel leader who fakes her death and undergoes a gender transition to become her more authentic self, which she hopes includes being a more philanthropic, law-abiding person who atones for her past crimes.
But a number of critics and moviegoers began turning on “Emilia Perez” after it opened in theaters and began streaming on Netflix. It never topped the streaming service’s top movie charts, and its reviews were mixed at best, according to the Daily Beast. Nonetheless, like other past “Oscars villains,” “Emilia Perez” also started to rack up accolades and awards, which only fueled further backlash, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
Some of the criticism focused on the exclusion of Mexican actresses in the movie’s main cast and concerns that the film’s French director overlooked or stereotyped Mexican culture, Yahoo said. GLAAD also published a lengthy article that criticized the film for using Emilia’s transgender identity as a redemption arc, calling it “profoundly retrograde,” Yahoo added. Transgender critics were especially offended by a musical number about medical procedures involved in gender confirmation surgery.
Nonetheless, both Gascón and “Emilia Perez” scored at the Golden Globe awards earlier this month. When Gascón accepted the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy on behalf of the entire production, she delivered her “message of hope,” saying “you can never take away our soul, our resistance, our identity,” according to Variety.
But Gascón soon stirred up “mild controversy” for an interview in which she disparaged “people working with” fellow nominee Fernanda Torres,” Herman wrote. Now, that” flare-up” pales in comparison with the current maelstrom, centered on comments she made on X, formerly Twitter, in 2020 and 2021.
The comments, which were deleted as recently as Thursday, were first discovered by journalist Sarah Hagi, the Daily Beast reported. In 2020, she commented negatively on a Muslim woman wearing a burka and complained that there were “more Muslims” in Spain, musing over whether schools will have to start teaching Arabic, according to the Daily Beast.
Gascón’s posts also extended to the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer and the mass protests that followed in cities across the United States. According to the Daily Beast, Gascón referred to Floyd as “a drug addict swindler.” As for diversity among Oscar nominees and winners, Gascón complained in 2021: “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.”
On Friday, Gascón issued a statement via Netflix, apologizing for her past social media comments, the Associated Press reported.
“As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain,” Gascón said. “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
But Herman pointed out that Gascón’s apology may not be enough to turn things around, at least for her own Oscars campaign. For one thing, Gascón can claim to be from a marginalized community as a performer who transitioned mid-career, Herman said, but that’s “no guarantee” at this point that she can’t also “be Islamophobic, racist, or any of the other negative impressions given by her statements.”