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.
