When Karla Sofía Gascón of Emilia Pérez became the first trans woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, the internet celebrated. But those celebrations were cut short in the last days of January when the media uncovered racist, Islamophobic, and ableist old Tweets sent by Gascón.
Variety translated the tweets originally recovered by journalist Sarah Hagi, and they’re truly shocking. In one, Gascón complains about Muslims in Spain, her home country, and says, “Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.” In another, she speaks about George Floyd, the man whose murder by American police sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, and calls him “a drug addict swindler.”
Gascón also objected to the diversity at the 2021 Oscars ceremony, comparing it to “an Afro-Korean festival” and “a Black Lives Matter demonstration.” It’s painful to see. As for ableism, at one point, Gascón referred to Muslims using the cruel, but now commonplace, R-slur.
People were rightly outraged over this and now Gascón has issued an apology. “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,” she said. “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
But not many are buying the (short!) apology. For a start, the racist and ableist tweets are only from a few years ago, and there’s nothing to indicate Gascón regretted them until she was forced to.
Then there’s the problem of Emilia Pérez itself. The movie is set in Mexico, but the filmmakers are French, and many Mexicans have said the depiction of their country is racist. Mexican screenwriter Héctor Guillén recently called the movie “racist Eurocentric mockery” and contributed to a parody where Mexican actors dressed up as French stereotypes. Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard added fuel to the fire when he said in a recent interview that “Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants.” Make no mistake: Emilia Pérez is a deeply controversial film.
Social media has reacted to the Gascón scandal with mockery but also very real hurt. People really believed in what Gascón represented as a trans woman, and now they’ve been let down. “Karla Sofía Gascón didn’t even bother to delete all of these [tweets] while campaigning,” wrote one user on Bluesky, the alternative to Elon Musk’s now toxic X. “A racist hateful woman with a gigantic ego.”
Plenty of people on X have likewise condemned the actress, though. “She’s literally a hate machine,” said one person. And then there were the memes—plenty of memes.
Gascón claims to be fighting for a better world, but there’s certainly no evidence of that thus far. Whether or not she wins the Oscar (and this sort of scandal can sink a campaign) she’ll now first and foremost be remembered as a bigot rather than a trans trailblazer. It’s so very disappointing.
Published: Feb 1, 2025 09:05 am