Emilia Pérez‘s main star apologizes online after racist and offensive tweets from years ago resurface. The Netflix musical is 2024’s most Oscar-nominated film, up for 13 awards, including Best Picture. One of its nominations was Best Actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, who competes in a category that also includes Cynthia Erivo, Demi Moore, Mikey Madison, and Fernanda Torres. Gascón made history by becoming the first openly transgender woman nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of the film’s тιтular character, who is a trans woman herself.

Speaking with Variety, Gascón apologized for problematic previous statements she made online. The actor acknowledged the controversy about her past tweets “that have caused hurt.” She then connected the suffering of those for which she had caused pain with her own past issues as “someone in a marginalized community.” Gascón apologized for her actions and ended her statement with “I believe light will always triumph over darkness.” Check out the full quote from Gascón below:

“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.”

What This Means For Emilia Pérez

This Could Hurt The Movie’s Oscar Chances

Gascón’s statement comes after a series of tweets from several years ago were discovered, expressing her problematic opinions on Muslims, George Floyd, and, ironically, diversity at the Oscars. In a 2020 post, she offered a harsh characterization of Islam and said: “how deeply disgusting of humanity.” She later wrote, “I am so sick of so much of this sh-t, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the ҒUCҜing beliefs of morons that violate human rights.” Gascón also wrote a racist-sounding opinion on George Floyd in 2020, and dissed the 2021 Oscar for including “protest films.” The text of these posts can be found below:

“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.”

“I am so sick of so much of this sh-t, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the ҒUCҜing beliefs of morons that violate human rights.”

“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 ᴀssᴀssins. They’re all wrong.”

“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.”

The actor’s backlash for these past posts came just over a month before the Oscars ceremony on March 2. Academy voters still have time to cast their ballots, and this headline does not look very good for Emilia Pérez. The Jacques Audiard musical itself has been praised for its portrayal of a marginalized group, which makes these racist past tweets look especially bad. Gascón’s apology is helpful to the cause, but there might still be a sour taste for some people because of these comments.

At the same time, the movie has also been super controversial, particularly due to the depiction and stereotyping of Mexicans and the lack of authentic casting. This has led to extensive discourse on the movie’s quality and authenticity, with the director and cast members defending it. This conversation intensified when Emilia Pérez got a record number of Academy Award nominations, prompting many pundits and commentators to question how it earned that much recognition. While the critics have been generally positive about the film, the same can’t be said for general movie watchers, as evidenced by the 20% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Our Take On This New Emilia Pérez Controversy

Two Frontrunners Have ᴀssociated Controversy

Gascón’s comments certainly complicated the state of the Oscars. Now, two of the frontrunners for Best Picture —The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez —have major controversies ᴀssociated with them. The Brutalist came under fire for its use of AI to aid certain sections of the film, and Emilia Pérez tacks on this news to its already divisive content. If these issues are enough of a deterrent to voters, it will be interesting to see whether another movie ends up coming out on top.

Source: Variety