Source: RAUL ARBOLEDA / Getty
One thing about the internet, it always keeps the receipts. The star of Emilia Perez is refusing to withdraw her Oscar nomination after a slew of her racist tweets have resurfaced.
As spotted on HuffPost, a thespian is taking some heavy heat for her choice of words and very damming takes on religion, police brutality and even the Oscar Awards itself. Karla Sofía Gascón, the lead actress in Emilia Perez is nominated for Actress in a Leading Role for her work as Emilia Pérez / Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a drug cartel kingpin who wants to change her identity to a woman through surgery. While the film has been generally panned by the country of Mexico, the Netflix project quickly gained big praise from critics.
In late January a slew of her old posts on Twitter, now known as X, resurfaced. One stated that Islam isn’t “INCOMPATIBLE with Western values.” In another tweet she flat out called George Floyd “a drug addict and a scammer.” She also was critical of the 2021 Oscars saying, “More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films,” Gascón wrote. “I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”
As expected, she is now facing extreme backlash and many are asking she withdraw her nomination from Actress in a Leading Role category. In an interview with CNN, she essentially brushed everything off. “I cannot step down from an Oscar nomination because I have not committed any crime nor have I harmed anyone. I am neither racist nor anything that all these people have tried to make others believe I am,” she said.
She has also gone on to apologize in a formal apology via Netflix. “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,” she added. “I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
The 2025 Oscar Awards will air live on Sunday, March 2.
