A Quick Look at Trans Actress Karla Sofía Gascón’s Self-Inflicted Fall From Grace

It could have been queer history. When Karla Sofía Gascón received the Best Actress nomination from the Oscars on January 25, she became the first openly transgender person to ever receive an Oscar nomination for acting. While the world was still not sold on the quality of her film Emilia Pérez, the Academy certainly was and early predictions had Gascón as the presumed winner. 

Instead of becoming a beautifully symbolic win for the trans community, Gascón’s Oscar campaign quickly became a dumpster fire after her racist, bigoted, and ultimately mystifying tweets made the rounds on social media. A hellstorm of backlash has swallowed up Gascón’s image and overshadowed any discussion of the film’s chances at the Oscars. Let’s take a look at Gascón’s sudden, and deserved, fall from grace.

January 21 – An Unlikely Punch Thrown At Fellow Best Actress Nominee

In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Gascón turned her attention towards fellow best actress nominee Fernanda Torres, accusing her team of spurring online hate towards Emilia Pérez and Gascón herself. In the interview, released on January 28, Gascón said, “I have never, at any point, said anything bad about Fernanda Torres or her movie. However, there are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and Emilia Pérez down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.” 

Following the release of the interview, people took to social media to raise the question of Gascón’s possible violation of Oscar rules by “shar[ing] misleading or false information about a motion picture, performance, or achievement”. Ultimately, the Academy determined that Gascón was in the clear as she complimented Torres’ performance in the same interview.  The actress later released a statement writing, “In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience. Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.” This controversy was only the beginning.

January 30 – Doomsday For Gascón As Old Tweets Resurfaced

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

In an X thread with more than 4 million views, journalist Sarah Hagi released screenshots of 12 anti-Islamic, xenophobic tweets from Gascón’s now deleted account alongside the statement, “this is all from the star of a movie that is campaigning on its progressive values, you really gotta laugh.” 

Below are some of the numerous anti-Islamic tweets shared by the actress.

 Users continued to dig through the actress’ account, finding more and more examples of bigotry against numerous groups of people. In a shocking thread just days after George Floyd’s death, she wrote, “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. They’re all wrong.” 

When reacting to the 2021 Oscars ceremony Gascón said, “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. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.” In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gascón disparaged the vaccines writing, “The Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase.”

She has tweeted anti-Christian, anti-Indian, anti-immigrant remarks, has commented that Miley Cyrus will go to hell due to her “horrible, unnatural, evil lesbian perversion.” Gascón has even said this about Hitler: “This is the same old story, ‘blacks [are slaves] and women in the kitchen.’ But it is my opinion and it must be respected. I do not understand such world war against Hitler, he simply had his opinion about the jews. Well, that’s how the world goes.” 

Following the backlash Gascón quickly deactivated her account and attempted to defend herself to Variety writing, “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.” This is an arguably insane thing to write considering, in this situation, she herself is the darkness. 

January 31-February 1 – Gascón Dropped A Second Statement…Then A Third

In a sprawling statement sent to the Hollywood Reporter, Gascón explained the decision to shut down her X account was due to threats of death and violence alongside online abuse and harassment. “I am a human being who also made, makes and will make mistakes from which I will learn. I am not perfect. Taking my words out of context or manipulating them to hurt me is something I am not responsible for,” the actress wrote. In a shocking addition to what was supposed to be an apology, Gascón threw in this snide remark, “But if you want, you can continue attacking me as if I were responsible for hunger and wars in the world.” She ended the statement defiantly writing, “The more you try to sink me, the stronger it will make me. The greater the victory will be.” 

In a separate statement posted to Instagram, Gascón apologized for her past words but remained adamant that she is not a racist (citing that she has a close relationship with a Muslim woman) and that these tweets were part of a conspiracy against her to make her look bad (despite that they are, in fact, her tweets). In a bizarre section of the statement, Gascón tried to explain that she is a different person than she was when those tweets were written due to her newfound Buddhism. “I can’t repair my past acts, I can only say that today I’m not the same person I was 10 or 20 years ago, who even though I hadn’t committed any crime I wasn’t perfect either, I’m not even now.” Just a reminder, the tweets in question were mostly published within the last 5 years. One can only imagine what a day in the life of her publicist must be like.

Following Gascón’s numerous statements, co-star Zoe Saldaña commented on the tweets and backlash during a Q+A in London. “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad. It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group,” said Saldaña. 

February 3 – An Unapproved Interview Backfired

Gascón, without consulting the team she works with at Netflix, appeared in an hour-long interview with CNN en Español in which she claimed, through tears, that her tweets were misrepresented. She claimed that some of the tweets were written as hypothetical opinions which she detests, that this is a campaign to make her lose the Oscar, and once again insisted that she is not a racist. The most off-the-rails moment of this absolutely unhinged interview was when Gascón compared her current predicament to the treatment of Black people in the Jim Crow South saying, “I feel and very much identify with the people who were thrown off buses for the color of their skin, with the people who did not want them to study at university, for the people who were hated simply for existing, like how I am hated in this moment.”

February 4 – Netflix Jumped Ship And Distanced From Gascón

In bombshell reports by both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, it is revealed that Gascón is no longer expected to attend any further campaign events. Netflix will no longer cover any travel expenses or styling expenses for events, will only communicate with Gascón through her agent, and all further promotional material will no longer feature Gascón’s image. Instead, Emilia Pérez co-stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez will head the movie’s award campaign in an attempt to save its reputation.

February 5 – Emilia Pérez Director And Co-Star Condemned Gascón’s Actions

In an interview with Deadline, director Jacques Audiard revealed that he has not spoken to Gascón since the tweets resurfaced. He further said that through her “self-destructive approach” and “playing the victim” she has hurt everyone involved with making Emilia Pérez.

In a preview for an upcoming episode for Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, co-star Saldaña expressed her disappointment about the fiasco surrounding Gascón saying, “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here.” Additionally, Saldaña was asked about a comment made by Gascón during her CNN appearance, in which Gascón claimed that both co-stars Selena Gomez and Saldaña “support [her] 200%.” In response to this comment, Saldaña reiterated, “I do not support any negative rhetoric of racism and bigotry towards any group of people. That is what I want to stand for.”

Selena Gomez has yet to make a public statement.

February 6 – Gascón Finally Vowed Silence

In a shocking statement posted to Instagram Gascón vowed to stay silent (a decision she should have made weeks ago) writing, “Following Jacques interview that I understand, I decided, for the film, for Jacques, for the cast, for the incredible crew who deserves it, for the beautiful adventure we all had together, to let the work talk for itself, hoping my silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful ode to love and difference. I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt along the way.” 

There is no question that after this absolute mess, it would be incredibly disappointing for her to receive the award for Best Actress at this year’s Oscars. One could argue that she should not receive the award not only because of the staggering amount of racism but also because, at the end of the day, Emilia Pérez was always a disaster of a film anyway. It is only fitting that a film rife with cultural insensitivities and recklessly harmful trans narrative should find a star equally as chaotic and careless.