Karla Sofía Gascón: A timeline of the controversy surrounding Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez star

Independent

06-02-2025

When it was announced last month that Karla Sofía Gascón had been nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, it made headlines around the world.
The news was hailed as a positive moment as the 52-year-old Emilia Perez star became the first-ever openly trans individual to be nominated for an Academy Award in any acting category.
But Less than two weeks later, Gascón's Academy Award campaign is in tatters as Netflix distances itself from the star of the movie musical.
Netflix, the film's distributor, has reportedly removed Gascón from promotional emails and plans to edit the film's posters to give co-star Zoe Saldaña, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress, more prominence.
That came after a string of controversies, as Gascón took aim at the publicity campaign of a rival film and she faced accusations of racism and Islamophobia when old social media posts resurfaced.
Here's a timeline of how Gascón's Oscar chances have taken a hit:
January 23, 2025 - Karla Sofía Gascón nominated for Best Actress at the 2025 Oscars
Gascón made history as she became the first-ever openly trans individual nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category. Having also been nominated for the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gascón was considered among the frontrunners to win the Oscar.
Not everyone was impressed, however. The Independent film critic Clarisse Loughrey argued that: ' Emilia Pérez 's Oscar nomination haul is regression masquerading as progress.'
January 30 - Gascón clarifies comments about fellow contender's team 'tearing her down'
In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo, Gascón suggested that publicists working for her Oscar award rival Fernanda Torres had spoken negatively about her and Emilia Perez.
'You don't need to tear down someone's work to highlight another's,' she complained. '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 Perez down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.'
After her comments sparked an uproar, Gascón issued a new statement claiming that what she said did not extend to those 'directly associated' with Torres, but instead was aimed toward 'toxicity and violent hate speech on social media.'
'I am an enormous fan of Fernanda Torres and it has been wonderful getting to know her the past few months,' she noted. '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.'
January 30 - Gascón receives backlash over resurfaced tweets
Outrage then erupted against Gascón online after journalist Sarah Hagi drew attention to a series of tweets from Gascón's account between 2020 and 2021.
One from September 2020 read: '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 ... How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY.'
Another from November 22, 2020 stated: 'I'm Sorry, Is it just my impression or [are] there more muslims in Spain? Every time I go to 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.'
Gascón also posted a string of tweets about George Floyd in the days after he was killed by a police officer in which she described him as 'a drug addict' and a 'swindler.'
After the Oscars in 2021, Gascón complained in a post: '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 [Women's March]. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.'
January 31 - Gascón apologizes 'to those I have caused pain'
After deleting the controversial tweets, Gascón said in a statement to The Independent: '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.'
January 31 - Gascón deletes X account and says she has been 'threatened with death'
Gascón deleted her X account and spoke out about death threats against her. 'I'm sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect me and my family, so at their request I am closing my account on X,' she said.
'I have been threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion. I have a wonderful daughter to protect, whom I love madly and who supports me in everything.'
February 1 - Zoe Saldaña breaks silence over scandal
Gascón's Emilia Perez co-star Zoe Saldaña responded to the growing controversy during a question-and-answer appearance in London, saying: 'I'm still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I'm sad.'
She added: 'It makes me really sad because I don't support [it], and I don't have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric toward people of any group.'
'I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is a part, of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural and gender equity. And it just saddens me,' Saldaña added.
Gascón had originally been scheduled to appear at the Q&A but was notably absent.
February 3 - Gascón breaks down in tears during a CNN interview as she claims: 'I'm not racist'
During an hour-long interview with CNN en Español, Gascón broke down in tears as she answered questions about her social media history, telling interviewer Juan Carlos Arciniegas that she was 'not a racist.'
She addressed her tweet about George Floyd, whose murder by a white police officer in 2020 spawned the Black Lives Matter movement, saying it had been misinterpreted.
"He was a person who had been in a very difficult situation in his life and no one had helped him, and suddenly he becomes a symbol of a cause and everyone loved him,' she said. 'For someone to think that … I have ever insulted a person because of their skin color, I do not allow that to anyone, to anyone.'
Regarding her several tweets that have been condemned as Islamophobic, Gascón said she had been voicing criticism of radical Islam, and had not caused harm to anyone.
She said she had a relationship with a Muslim woman 'whom I adore, whom I love and who has taught me so much about respect for people.'
February 5 - Netflix distances itself from Gascón and removes her from Oscar campaigns
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emilia Pérez distributor Netflix removed Gascón from promotional emails and plans to edit the film's posters to give Saldaña more prominence. It also claims that Netflix will not cover any of Gascón's travel fees to promote the film, and will not fly her to Los Angeles to campaign for the film in the run up to the Academy Awards on March 2.
February 5 - Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard condemns 'hateful' and 'inexcusable' tweets
In an interview with Deadline, Emilia Pérez director JacquesAudiard disavowed Gascón, saying: 'It's very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía. The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust.'
He added: 'When you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It's as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.'
Asked whether he had spoken to Gascón, Audiard responded: 'I haven't spoken to her, and I don't want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can't interfere in, and I really don't understand why she's continuing.'
He added: 'Why is she harming herself? Why? I don't understand it, and what I don't understand about this too is why she's harming people who were very close to her.'
Audiard noted: 'I'm thinking... of how [she's] hurting others, of how she's hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I'm thinking of myself, I'm thinking of Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don't understand why she's continuing to harm us.'