Karla Sofía Gascón: ‘I have been left very alone’

A week ago, Karla Sofía Gascón (Madrid, 52 years old) was in the middle of the running for the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in Emilia Pérez. At the same time, she continued to be the subject of attacks on social media for her status in the world of cinema: she is the first publicly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar. Until journalist Sarah Hagi delved into Gascón’s X (formerly Twitter) account and brought to light a dozen tweets containing racist and inflammatory comments that she had never deleted from her profile, but which were resurrected last Thursday. In them, she criticized Islam (with expressions against Moroccans such as “fucking Moors”), George Floyd (whom she called a “drug addict”), and the world of cinema (including the Barbie campaign or the 2021 Oscars).

On Monday morning Gascón, back in Madrid, agreed to a telephone interview with EL PAÍS. She doesn’t know much about her near future, with an agenda full of important events such as the Critics’ Choice Awards (next Friday in Santa Monica, California), receiving the Virtuosos Award from the Santa Barbara Film Festival (California) on February 9, and later her appearance at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG), the British Bafta Awards, the French César Awards, and finally the Oscars on March 2: the Spaniard is a nominee at all of them.

The storm caught Gascón in London, promoting Emilia Pérez on the Oscars trail. Netflix, which is leading the campaign as it is distributing the film in the United States, removed her from an event that same Friday night, while Gascón sent a statement to various Spanish journalists in which she pointed out that, as a “human being,” she has made and will continue to make mistakes, but that she is not responsible for her words being manipulated, she says, to hurt her: “I am only responsible for what I say, not for what others say I say, or for what others interpret from what I say.” And she emphasizes again in the phone call Monday: “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, often due to ignorance or pure mistake. I ask for forgiveness again if anyone has ever felt offended, or in the future.”

If I don’t fight for the Oscar, it means I’m throwing it all away. I will not allow those who hate that luxury”

Before speaking to EL PAÍS in a quite emotional interview (the conversation is interrupted on several occasions by her tears), Gascón messages on WhatsApp: “The first thing I want to say is that I will never regret not agreeing with women being forced to wear a burqa; I will never allow a Catholic to tell me that I am the work of the devil. I do not want wars in this world, I do not belong to any political party and I will point out what I don’t like about all of them, I am against dictatorships, fanaticism, how sheepish we are, aggressive demonstrations, sexism. I am in favor of inclusion, of positive discrimination, because I ended up understanding it, of the rights of women, of workers, of immigrants, because I am one, of sexual and artistic freedom, of humor, of irony, of paraphrasing haters to expose them. I do not agree with the lynching, trials, and convictions of bots and haters on social media. The worst thing is that any way is okay to keep insulting me, but nobody cares about that.”

Over the phone, the actress insists: “Many of those tweets were sarcastic, taken out of context and part of a thread, which eventually became a book of mine. It was a project about racism, experiences, and burdens, about which I published a book, Inner Phoenix. However, my sincerest apologies to all the people who may have been offended.” Although she acknowledges having written many of those tweets, there is at least one, from October 2022, in which she describes Selena Gomez, her co-star in Emilia Pérez, as a “rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can.” “It’s not mine, I didnt think that then, nor do I now. Besides, how could I write a tweet against [someone] who I already knew might be my co-star? I’ve talked to Selena and she’s clear about it and supports me.” Are there more tweets that Gascón does not consider hers? “I don’t know, because I haven’t looked at them. I deleted my account.” Have you spoken to Jacques Audiard, director of the narco-musical, which received the highest number of Oscar nominations this year? “He is 100% with me, of course, and he will reaffirm this in a public statement soon.” Have you received any legal complaints for your tweets? “Of course not.”

The actress insists that “there is something very dark” in the way her case has been presented. “I provided my passwords a few days ago for promotion, before they came to light,” she stresses. “They’re using me. It hasn’t been nice how they have treated me, taking for granted the narrative that people sick with hate have wanted to sell. Neither I nor my family are racist, never, quite the opposite, and no one has supported us, it’s been taken for granted that some tweets emphasizing the hypocrisy, racism, and evil that people have in this world were my feelings and not a complaint. To me, an exaggerated joke was an attack on an institution.” Does she feel alone? “I feel alone, I have been left very alone. In my family, of course, they support me, and my wife and daughter are by my side. And a very important woman in my life, who is Muslim, has understood me perfectly. I have talked a lot with her and she understands what I mean about fundamentalism. Maybe my mistake was not to use the word fundamentalist on Twitter.”

Gascón also insists that she has not had the opportunity to defend herself: “It caught me off guard, in the middle of a promotion. I was told to ask for forgiveness and not to make any statements, but that left me defenseless. Why is all this happening? Why to me, a member of a persecuted group? Why now?” And she has no intention of abandoning her defense: “If I don’t fight for the Oscar, it means I’m throwing it all away. I will not allow those who hate that luxury.” And she insists: “They have suffocated me, telling me to shut up.” The final question concerns her professional future: has she had any contracts terminated? “Do you remember what I told you on the day of the nominations? That it was time to talk more about my acting work and separate myself from the debate about being trans. Well, I insist on the same thing. On the one hand, both from [Emilia Pérez], which have already been made public, Las malas [the screen adaptation of the novel by Camila Sosa Villada, directed by Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Armando Bo], and the following projects I have signed on for, I have received messages of support. And, later on, if I have to make a living from something else, I will. What I’m not going to allow is to be silenced so I can’t defend myself.”

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