“Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón has gone darkish in a single nook of the web after a collection of her insensitive previous remarks about Muslims, Islam, George Floyd and extra recirculated this week.
Gascón deactivated her X (previously Twitter) account Friday after issuing an apology for these remarks, which she stated “have caused hurt.” She had additionally shared the assertion on X, in accordance the Hollywood Reporter. The “Emilia Pérez” breakout, who stars because the controversial movie’s titular, redemption-seeking transgender cartel boss, confronted backlash after Canadian author Sarah Hagi resurfaced tweets courting from 2016 to 2023. Within the tweets, Gascón spoke negatively of Muslims’ clothes, language and tradition in her dwelling nation of Spain. She additionally urged banning Islam.
Moreover, Gascón caught warmth this week for resurfaced feedback in regards to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the following racial reckoning, the Black Lives Matter motion and the COVID-19-era Academy Awards ceremony in 2021. She addressed the tweets Thursday in a press release by way of Netflix.
“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 wrote. “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
A consultant for Gascón didn’t instantly reply Friday to The Occasions’ request for remark.
Lower than a day after apologizing, Gascón confirmed in a prolonged assertion to THR that she had shut down her X account, writing, “I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore.” The Spanish actor, 52, wrote that she obtained dying threats and was harassed, defined she “always used my social media as a diary,” and supplied one other apology for individuals offended by her posts.
“I am a human being who also made, makes and will make mistakes from which I will learn,” she wrote within the assertion, which THR translated from Spanish to English. “I am not perfect. Taking my words out of context or manipulating them to hurt me is something I am not responsible for.”
This week Gascón additionally confronted backlash for criticizing the net marketing campaign of fellow lead actress Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres.
In a latest interview, Gascón accused “people working with” Brazilian actor Torres of “tearing me and ‘Emilia Pérez’ down.” She later clarified her feedback, noting she is an “enormous fan” of the “I’m Still Here” actor and saying she as a substitute was “referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech” she faces on social media, in line with Individuals.
Clearly, the highway the 2025 Oscars in March has been a rocky one for frontrunner “Emilia Pérez.” The movie, from French director Jacques Audiard, obtained 13 nominations, probably the most on this 12 months’s crop of Oscar hopefuls. Gascón made Oscars historical past as the primary transgender lady to be nominated in an performing class whereas Audiard earned a directing nomination and Zoe Saldaña a supporting actress nod. “Emilia Pérez” can also be up for the marquee image prize.
The musical-drama additionally has confronted backlash for its depiction of a transgender character, alleged use of synthetic intelligence and its director’s “didn’t study much” apathy towards the Mexican tradition at its core.
“In the end, ‘Emilia Pérez’ is a wannabe ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ that replaces humor and genius with hubris and guns,” Occasions columnist Gustavo Arellano wrote.
He added, “No wonder the film nabbed so many Oscar nominations: Academy members are always going to want their cinematic Mexico to be a pitiable hellhole in need of salvation and a reminder to change its errant ways, a trope that goes back to the days of Manifest Destiny.”
Occasions columnist Glenn Whipp and the Related Press contributed to this report.
