Karla Sofía Gascón gives tearful TV interview addressing racist tweets and refusing to ‘renounce’ her Oscar nomination
Continuing her efforts to repair her damaged reputation, embattled Best Actress Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón sat down with CNN en Espa?ol anchor Juan Carlos Arciniegas for a nearly hourlong interview Saturday in which she broke down multiple times.
Gascón, who made history as the first openly trans actress to receive an Oscar bid for Netflix’s Emilia Pérez, has been under fire after offensive social media posts from the past five years were uncovered. She has since deleted her X account.
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In the interview, Gascón claimed that one social media post, in which her Emilia Pérez screen partner Selena Gomez was called a “rich rat,” was fabricated. “Of course, that’s not mine,” Gascón told CNN (watch above). “I have never said anything about my partner. I would never refer to her that way.”
Gascón voiced regret about the media’s interpretation of her tweets, which touched on topics such as Muslims, George Floyd, diverse Oscar winners, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She also questioned the timing of the tweets’ disclosure, noting they surfaced following her nomination and just before Oscar voters started their voting process.
SEE‘Emilia Pérez’ plummets to 4th place in Oscar odds amid Karla Sofía Gascón mess
“My most sincere apologies to all the people who may have felt offended by the ways I express myself in my past, in my present, and in my future,” Gascón told CNN.
Despite multiple apologies from Gascón, her costar Zoe Salda?a publicly distanced herself, saying Gascón’s racist and Islamophobic commentary made her “sad.”
When Arciniegas asked whether Gascón would “renounce” her Oscar bid, she said, “I cannot renounce a nomination because what I have done is a job, and what is being valued is my acting work. And I cannot renounce a nomination either because I have not committed any crime nor have I harmed anyone. I am not a racist, nor am I anything that all these people have taken it upon themselves to try to make others believe that I am.”
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actress set up the CNN interview independently without the involvement of any of the film’s awards campaigners or Netflix studio executives. Over the last week, Gascón issued a short apology through Netflix, followed by a longer statement and a later post on Instagram (both handled without input from the studio).
In Emilia Pérez, Gascón portrays Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a drug kingpin who undergoes gender-affirming surgery aided by a lawyer (Salda?a). Following her transformation into the stunning Emilia, she attempts to discreetly connect with her children and former wife (played by Gomez), all of whom believe Manitas is deceased. Emilia Pérez earned 13 Oscar nominations, the highest ever for a non-English-language film.
In Gascón’s Best Actress Oscar race, the Gold Derby odds predict Demi Moore (The Substance) will win, with Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) in our spoiler position. Rounding out the category are Mikey Madison (Anora) in third, Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) in fourth, and Gascón in fifth.
Oscar voting for the winners opens Feb. 11 and closes Feb. 18 (see the awards calendar). The 97th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on ABC on March 2.
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