Karla Sofía Gascón clarifies comments about ‘wonderful ally’ Fernanda Torres after controversial interview goes viral
Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón has clarified her comments about fellow Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres after an interview Gascón had done on Jan. 21 was published online this week.
“I am an enormous fan of Fernanda Torres, and it has been wonderful getting to know her over the past few months,” Gascón said in a statement obtained by Gold Derby. “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.”
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In the interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paolo, conducted before Gascón received her historic Oscar nomination as the first openly trans woman nominated for Best Actress, the Emilia Pérez star spoke highly of Torres’s performance in I’m Still Here. However, she criticized “people working with” the Brazilian actress for “tearing me and Emilia Perez down.”
“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,” Gascón said in Spanish (as translated by Variety). “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 Pérez down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.”
Admitting she hadn’t seen I’m Still Here, Gascón added that Torres is a “wonderful woman and an amazing actress who deserves all the recognition in the world.”
“This isn’t a competition,” Gascón said. “This is simply about people liking one’s work or not. If [Torres] wins [the Oscar], great. If I win, same.”
Gascón’s admiration of Torres extended beyond that interview. According to Torres, in a video posted to social media on Jan. 24, Gascón went out of her way to embrace Torres at a recent party in Los Angeles and introduced the actress to several attendees. “She was so kind to me. She was very supportive,” Torres said in the clip. “I know that sometimes people in passion create something against each other. I will beat the other. But I swear, this year, the Oscars, the choices they made for the female actor nominees, they are so special.”
Online, where Emilia Pérez is arguably the year’s biggest Oscar villain among both conservatives and progressive groups, many wondered if Gascón had violated Academy rules with her comments. According to the Academy’s campaign promotional regulations, “members, motion picture companies, and individuals directly associated with an eligible motion picture should be mindful of the impact their public communications may directly or indirectly have on the promotion of a motion picture, performance, or achievement, as well as the awards process.”
The Academy states that any public communications, “including any social media posts, re-posts, shares, and comments,” by “Academy members, motion picture companies, or individuals directly associated with an eligible motion picture may not state voting decisions, preferences, or strategies; encourage or discourage members to vote for any motion picture, performance, or achievement; reference a motion picture meeting, not meeting, or exceeding Oscars eligibility requirements, such as Inclusion Standards or theatrical distribution thresholds; share misleading or false information about a motion picture, performance, or achievement.”
(The rules about campaigning were put under a microscope after Andrea Riseborough received an unexpected Oscar nomination in 2023 for To Leslie. In that same cycle, eventual Best Actress winner Michelle Yeoh was criticized for sharing an article that urged the Academy to pick her over two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. Yeoh deleted her social media post amid the backlash.)
The Gascón interview is the latest controversy to befall the Best Actress race. Earlier this week, Torres released an apologetic statement after a 17-year-old video of the actress performing in blackface on a Brazilian comedy series went viral.
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