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Last week, “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón made history as the first openly transgender actress to receive an Oscar nomination for her role in the Netflix film. Today, she’s apologizing for resurfaced social media posts expressing controversial views on Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Academy Awards.
“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she said in a statement obtained by USA TODAY. “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain.”
On Thursday morning, journalist Sarah Hagi shared screenshots of several of Gascón’s old posts on X, formerly Twitter, and they quickly gained steam —and backlash — from people on social media. Variety was first to report the news.
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“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,” Hagi wrote of Gascón’s controversial posts.
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In one of the posts dated Nov. 23, 2020, Gascón wrote in Spanish and translated by USA TODAY: “Sorry, is it just me or are there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I 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 another post, Gascón shared a thread about her thoughts on George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the nationwide demonstrations that occurred in response to his murder at the hands of police.
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“Honestly, I 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 … without rights and consider policemen to be assassins,” she posted. “They’re all wrong.”
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.”
In another post, the Oscar nominee also criticized The Academy for its 2021 awards show ceremony, the first following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“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.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for comment.
According to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, many of the posts have now been deleted.
Gascón concluded her statement Thursday, “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
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Gascón earned an Academy Award nomination for best actress for the Spanish-language crime thriller “Emilia Pérez,” becoming the first openly trans actress to do so.
Directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, the film is an unconventional movie musical about a Mexican drug lord (Gascón) who undergoes gender affirmation surgery. Selena Gomez co-stars as her disgruntled wife, while Zoe Saldaña plays a high-powered lawyer who befriends the ex-kingpin.
Over the last half century, many cisgender actors have been nominated at the Oscars for portraying trans characters, including Jared Leto (“The Dallas Buyers Club”), Jaye Davidson (“The Crying Game”), John Lithgow (“The World According to Garp”), Glenn Close (“Albert Nobbs”) and Felicity Huffman (“Transamerica”). Elliot Page, too, was nominated for best actress for the 2007 pregnancy comedy “Juno,” before announcing he is transgender in 2020.
Born in Madrid, Gascón moved from Spain to Mexico in 2009, where she appeared in telenovelas such as “Hasta el fin del mundo” and “Llena de amor.” With the support of her wife and now-teenage daughter, she began her transition in 2018, and was cast in “Emilia Pérez” in 2022.
The movie has been heavily scrutinized by critics and social media users, drawing comparisons to everything from “Mrs. Doubtfire” to the much-maligned Oscar best picture winner “Crash.”
The film leads the 2025 Oscar nominations with 13 nods.
Critics of the film also include some in the Mexican community, who see the film as an inauthentic portrayal of the country’s culture and drug war issue. The non-profit LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD called it a “profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman” that “recycles the trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés of the not-so-distant past.”
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Gascón has also encountered ignorance on the awards campaign trail these last few months.
“The other day, this woman came up to me and was telling me how wonderful my work was,” she told USA TODAY in November 2024. “Then she asked me, ‘If you get nominated, will you be nominated for best actress or best actor?’ And I told her, ‘Ma’am, I am an actress! If I played a monster or an old dog, I would still be nominated as an actress!’ “
But with her visibility throughout awards season, the outspoken actress told USA TODAY she hoped to educate people about what it means to be trans.
“All I can do is focus on planting the seed by doing my work and showing that I am no different than anybody else,” Gascón says. “I just want to live my life without anybody bothering me — everyone deserves to be themselves.”
Contributing: Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY
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