Karla Sofía Gascón releases yet another statement on offensive social media posts: ‘I am not racist’
For the third time in as many days, Emilia Pérez star and Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón released a statement that sought to contextualize several offensive social media posts she wrote over the last five years. “The first thing I would like to do is to sincerely apologize to all those who have felt bad about the way I have expressed myself at any stage of my life,” Gascón wrote Saturday on Instagram.
Adding that she has “many things to learn in this world,” Gascón wrote, “Life has taught me something I never wanted to learn: it is clear to me that as much as your message is one, without using the correct words, it becomes another.”
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“I have gone from living a normal life to a life at the top of my profession in just six months, now my responsibility is very great because my voice does not only belong to me but to many people who feel represented and hopeful with me,” she wrote.
In her new statement, Gascón suggested she “cannot repair my past actions.” However, “Today, I am not the same person as 10 or 20 years ago. Although I had not committed any crime, I was not perfect either. I am not even now. I just try to learn and be a better person every day.”
“I recognize, through tears, that they have already won, they have achieved their goal, to tarnish my existence with lies or things taken out of context,” she wrote. “Anyone who knows me knows that I am not racist (they will be surprised when they discover that one of the most important people in my current life and the one I love the most is Muslim) nor any of the things for which they have judged and condemned me without trial and without the option to explain their true intention; I have always fought for a more just society and for a world of freedom, peace and love. I will never support wars, religious extremism or the oppression of races and peoples.”
Seemingly referencing at least one social media post in which she purportedly mocked Emilia Pérez costar Selena Gomez, Gascón added, “They have created posts as if it were me, insulting even my colleagues, things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticism, jokes as if they were reality, words that without the background only seem like hate. All so that I do not win anything and sink.”
Read her full post below:
On Thursday, a freelance journalist named Sarah Hagi resurfaced several offensive social media posts published by Gascón. Among the inflammatory comments made by the Oscar nominee included bigoted remarks about Muslims, the murder of George Floyd, and the 2021 Oscars ceremony, when Nomadland, Minari, and Judas and the Black Messiah were among the winners.
“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,” read one post from Gascón in 2020.
Regarding Floyd, whose murder on May 25, 2020, sparked global Black Lives Matter protests, Gascón wrote, “Let me get this straight, a guy tries to pass off a counterfeit bill after consuming methamphetamine, an idiot policeman arrives and goes too far in arresting him, killing him, ruining the lives of his family and his colleagues, and turning the guy with the bill into a martyr hero. I truly believe that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and a hustler, but his death has served to highlight once again that there are those who still consider Black people to be monkeys without rights and those who consider the police to be murderers. All wrong.”
About the Oscars ceremony, Gascón wrote, “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 [International Women’s Day]. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala. They forgot to give an award to my cousin’s short film, who is lame.”
The backlash to Gascón was swift, with some calling for her Oscar nomination to be rescinded. (Gascón is the first openly trans actress nominated for Best Actress.) In the wake of the controversy, Gascón first released a statement through Netflix. “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón said. “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.”
On Friday, after she deactivated her X account, Gascón released her own statement exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore, so at their request I am closing my account on X,” Gascón wrote about the decision in a lengthy statement released exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter. “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. I had long ago made the decision to close a social network [sic], which has taken a terrible turn, in which I have also sometimes fallen, and for which I apologize.”
She added, “As part of this society, I have expressed my disagreement or agreement with all the related issues that have touched me and of which I have had an opinion, often erroneous, which has changed throughout my own experience. I have always used my social media as a diary, reflections or notes, to later create stories or characters, not as something that would be scrutinized down to the last of its 140 characters, since sometimes I, myself, am not even aware of having written something negative.”
She continued, “I have defended each and every one of the minorities in this world and supported freedom of religion and any action against racism and homophobia in the same way that I have criticized the hypocrisy that underlies them, because the first thing I am critical of is myself. You will never hear me support a war, an injustice, extremism or applaud anyone who oppresses other human beings. Perhaps my words are not correct, many times due to ignorance or pure mistake. I apologize again if anyone has ever felt offended or in the future.”
Beyond the initial statement it attributed to Gascón, Netflix has not commented on the outrage over the Emilia Pérez star. But Gascón’s costar and fellow Oscar nominee Zoe Salda?a did speak out against the social media posts during an event for the film in London on Friday.
“I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad,” she said. “It makes me really sad because I don’t support, and I don’t have any tolerance for, any negative rhetoric towards 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 were about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity. And it just saddens me.”
She continued, “It saddens me that we are having to face this setback right now. But I’m happy that you’re all here and that you’re all still showing up for Emilia because the message that this film has is so powerful and the change that it can bring forward to communities that are marginalized day in and day out is important. And all that I can attest is that all of us that came together to tell this story, we came together for love and for respect and curiosity, and we will continue to spread that message. That’s all we can say right now. Thank you.”
Emilia Pérez led all films this year with 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. In a tight race, with several examples of industry support and praise, it was well-positioned to become the first Netflix movie to win the Oscars’ top prize. (Online, Emilia Pérez has been broadly criticized, with even GLAAD condemning the film for its “profoundly retrograde” depiction of trans women.) But now, many wonder if Gascón’s comments will push voters away (in the Gold Derby odds, the movie has since fallen to fourth place). “They have to hope that Karla didn’t just give all these Oscar voters a good reason to vote against their movie,” an anonymous awards strategist told Variety. “You want people to feel excited about their choice, not ashamed.”
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