Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón receives backlash over resurfaced tweets

Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón has sparked outrage on social media over a series of resurfaced posts from her X account expressing controversial views about Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars.

Gascón recently made history when she became the first-ever openly trans individual nominated for an Academy Award in any acting category.

Variety reports that journalist Sarah Hagi drew attention to a series of tweets from Gascón’s account made 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. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY.”

Another in November that year added: “I’m Sorry, Is it just my impression or is 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 swindler.”

After the Oscars in 2021, Gascón posted: “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 Strike]. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”

The tweets have since been deleted. In a statement to The Independent, Gascón said: “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.”

Yesterday, Gascón issued a statement to clarify her comments after a separate controversy erupted over her appearing to accuse the social media team behind fellow Oscar contender I’m Still Here of undermining her.

In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper, Folha de S Paulo, Gascón said: “What I don’t like are social media teams - people who work with these people - trying to diminish our work, like me and my movie, because that doesn’t lead anywhere.

“You don’t need to tear down someone’s work to highlight another’s. 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.”

In a statement since given to Variety, Gascón has clarified her comments stating 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 added. “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.”

Gascón went on to call Torres a “wonderful woman and an amazing actress who deserves all the recognition in the world,” but admitted that she had not yet seen I’m Still Here.

The 52-year-old concluded: “This isn’t a competition. This is simply about people liking one’s work or not. If [Torres] wins [the Oscar], great. If I win, same.”

Earlier this month, Torres won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama.