Last week, Karla Sofía Gascón made history as the first openly trans actor to receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in Emilia Pérez. However, the Spanish actor has since faced backlash after a series of her past ‘racist’ and offensive tweets resurfaced online.
Now, in a statement to Variety, Gascón has issued an apology. She said:
“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalised 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.”
Why is Karla Sofía Gascón facing backlash?
The controversy erupted when several of Gascón’s old tweets were unearthed on X (formerly Twitter).
In one post from 2020, she shared a photo of a Muslim family at a restaurant, including a woman wearing a burka, and wrote:
“Islam is marvellous, 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 they behave. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY,” (as translated by Variety).
Another tweet, posted just days after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in the US, read:
“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.”
She also made comments about the 2021 Oscars, writing:
“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.”
Who is Karla Sofía Gascón?
Gascón is a Spanish actor who began her career in the soap opera El Súper, where she portrayed a flight attendant. She later appeared in various television shows and films, including Box 507 and Say I Do, before gaining widespread recognition for her role in the Spanish hit The Noble Family.
Her performance in Emilia Pérez has earned her significant acclaim, leading to her historic Oscar nomination in 2025. Prior to this, she became the first transgender woman to win the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival—an honour she shared with co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz. She was also the first trans woman to be nominated for film acting at the Golden Globes.
Despite these groundbreaking achievements, the resurfacing of her past remarks has cast a shadow over her recent success, sparking heated debates about accountability in the entertainment industry.
