Karla Sofia Gascon, the actress in “Emilia Pérez”, at the heart of a controversy for old racist and Islamophobic tweets

Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon from the film “Emilia Pérez” has apologized after controversial old tweets.

While the film “Emilia Perez” has just been nominated 13 times for an Oscar, old racist and Islamophobic tweets from its lead actress have resurfaced on social media. Karla Sofía Gascón apologized in the columns of the American newspaper Variety.

The Spanish actress made history by becoming the first transgender artist to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. Her role as a drug trafficker in the midst of gender transition in Emilia Pérez propelled her to the forefront of the media scene.

Controversial messages

Several American media outlets have republished some of her past controversial messages. Among them, a tweet from 2017 in which she wrote: “Islam has become a hotbed of infection for humanity”. In 2020, she called George Floyd, killed by a police officer, a “drug-addicted crook.”

A year later, after the Oscars ceremony that rewarded “Parasite” as well as several black artists, she wondered:“Am I watching an Afro-Korean festival ?”.

“As a member of a marginalized community, I know this pain all too well and I am deeply sorry to everyone I have hurt”, Karla Sofía Gascón expressed in the face of the controversy. She also deleted her X account.

A lot of criticism

This case adds to the criticism surrounding Emilia Pérez, despite her 13 Oscar nominations. Jacques Audiard's film is particularly controversial in Mexico, where it is accused of multiplying clichés and minimizing the seriousness of narco-violence, a scourge that has caused hundreds of thousands of victims in the country. A petition has even been launched to denounce the way in which the film “trivializes the problem of the disappeared in Mexico”.

Selena Gomez, who plays one of the main roles, is also not immune to criticism: some criticize her approximate Spanish.

In France, Emilia Pérez is also divisive, particularly within the transgender community, who consider her representation of the transition process “caricatural”.

While the Oscars ceremony will be held on March 2, the Academy finds itself in a delicate situation in the face of the controversies surrounding the film.