The week that derailed Karla Sofía Gascón’s Oscar dreams and jeopardized her career

Nothing and no one is safe from Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweets. Not the “fucking Moors,” not the movie Barbie and its “bullshit” promotion, not the “drug addict” George Floyd, not Islam, not the Church, not Miley Cyrus, not Adele, and not even Selena Gomez, her co-star in Emilia Pérez, who she described as “a rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can.”

These old posts, which began resurfacing on social media Thursday, reveal a side of the 52-year-old Madrid actress that contrasts sharply with the charming, politically incorrect persona she’s presented while promoting Emilia Pérez — a movie that landed her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, making her the first trans actor to be nominated in this category. After decades of diverse roles, Gascón has spoken out on many topics and always insisted that no one would silence her overwhelming sincerity.

However, it’s not the opinions she shared during the campaign for Emilia Pérez, but rather those older tweets that have all but buried her chance of winning an Oscar on March 2. They may have even jeopardized the movie’s prospects. The question now is how these past controversies will affect her future career in Hollywood, where political correctness continues to hold significant sway.

Perhaps the key lies in understanding that Hollywood operates by its own set of rules. Gascón has always bent those rules slightly, but when it comes down to it, they do matter — especially for the 10,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who will vote between February 11 and 18. Given the current backlash, it seems less likely than ever that they’ll vote for her or for Jacques Audiard’s French narco-musical Emilia Pérez, which Netflix purchased to distribute in the U.S. While Gascón wasn’t the favorite to win, she now appears to be the least-likely nominee to take home the Oscar. Gascón is, in every sense, Emilia Pérez — the protagonist and soul of the film. The damage to the film’s reputation is irreparable, and her presence in the awards season has become uncomfortable.

In response, Gascón, Netflix, and their teams have entered crisis mode. The series of incidents has left Emilia Pérez with significant hurdles in the Oscar race, where it began as the favorite with 13 nominations — the most nominated non-English language film in history. The resurfaced tweets are the latest scandal, but there have been others. Before this, Gascón also accused the Brazilian film I’m Still Here and the team of lead actress Fernanda Torres (who is also nominated) of “discrediting” her work. That comment was made in an interview with Folha de S. Paulo on Wednesday, prompting Gascón to issue a public apology.

The third controversy erupted that same day when a video surfaced of Audiard, the film’s director, claiming that “Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants.” He didn’t say this in a mocking or aggressive tone, and aside from the brief 10 seconds of that sentence, the rest of the video has not been seen. However, the director’s ill-advised words quickly went viral.

None of these blunders are new: the accusations against the Brazilian film date back to January 21, Audiard’s comments were made five months ago, and Gascón’s tweets are from years ago. But all of them — whether coincidental, tied to the awards season, or perhaps a part of a plot — have emerged together in just three days, derailing the career of a film that was already under scrutiny after its premiere in Mexico, where it has sparked controversy.

Even so, the clumsiness in the final stretch of its promotion is surprising. And the critical question remains: with Gascón now a global star, did no one review those old tweets? Did no publicist in Spain (her home country), France (where the film is being produced), or the U.S. (where it’s gaining traction) go through the social media history of someone who was until recently not famous, and might have thought she could post anything? Did anyone scroll through her past posts?

No one took proactive steps to manage the fallout beforehand, and the subsequent damage control has not been effective. After the tweets resurfaced, Gascón issued a statement with a relatively nuanced apology, claiming that she is the target of a hate campaign aimed at both her and her film. She deactivated her account, apologized, but insisted that her words had been “taken out of context,” asserting that she is not responsible for what’s being portrayed. “It’s clear that there is something very dark behind it,” she added.

On Saturday, after the heat of the moment had passed, she apologized again on Instagram to her nearly 200,000 followers, acknowledging: “Forms are my main defect.” She stressed that she is not racist and feels she has been “judged and condemned without trial.” However, she claimed the hundreds of posts have been distorted and fabricated. “They have created posts as if it were me insulting even my colleagues,” she said. “Things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality, words that without the background only seem like hate.”

In situations like these, it’s common for people to apologize and move forward, but she has not taken that route — and that choice has not been well understood in the film industry.

In the United States, the controversy has sparked a wave of reactions. In a sociocultural landscape as scrutinized as that of the Oscars, where every move is carefully measured, the situation has sparked more rejection than surprise. Sue Obeidi, vice president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Hollywood, told EL PAÍS that it is “very disappointing.”

“Deleted or not, these tweets are hurtful, offensive, and shocking, most especially coming from someone who is a member of another vulnerable community,” said Obeidi in a statement from the lobby, which represents the Muslim community nationwide and in Hollywood, calls for an end to stereotypical depictions of Muslims in the film industry. “Muslims are part of every community, including the transgender community. ‘European Values’ Does she mean the ones that led to the Holocaust? She needs to immerse herself in Islamic history. When Europe was in the dark ages, Muslims were busy discovering math, science, and medical equipment. Learn, woman.”

The awards expectations for Emilia Pérez in the four weeks leading up to the season’s big night are rapidly deflating. Pau Brunet, a film analyst at Boxoffice based in Los Angeles, goes even further: “I’m almost certain this film is going home empty-handed.” According to Brunet, it could easily win none of the 13 awards it is in the running for on March 2. “I think it has been losing steam for a while; it has fallen in terms of being seen as the great film against Trump. When the nominations were announced, it may have entered for that reason, but not anymore.”

Specialized media have also shifted their stance. Variety, the leading film publication in the city, was enthusiastic about Netflix’s star feature film just a few days ago. However, from Wednesday to Friday, their coverage has taken a sharp turn, with all of their articles on the film being negative. Of their 10 most-read stories on Saturday, three were about Gascón. One, particularly critical, states that having her at the Oscars gala is a problem. It calls her apologies “pathetically limp,” accuses her of “a remarkable lack of judgment, proportion, or good sense,” and claims that Emilia Pérez is “the defining film of what, thanks to an unbridled and unpleasant new figure [Gascón], has become an Oscar season many fans now just want to end.”

Every year, Variety organizes roundtable discussions where the nominees gather just days before the Oscars. “Are they going to invite her? No? Nobody is going to want to be in that photo,” says Brunet, who believes that Variety’s shift in direction “has not been stopped by Netflix’s machinery. There is an editorial group that has sat down and made a decision.” And this is precisely the publication the Academy members read, especially with just 10 days left before voting begins. Other awards, such as the Baftas, where Gascón is also nominated, are already halfway through their voting process, and it’s impossible to predict how the controversy will impact its chances.

One person who could be significantly impacted is Zoe Saldaña. If there was one sure award for the film, it was hers for Best Supporting Actress, for a role she said she had been “waiting all her life” for. Now, however, she faces an even more difficult challenge: positioning herself without attacking her own film, but also without directly supporting her co-star. After a campaign where the actresses appeared united, showing mutual affection with praise and hugs at public and private events, Saldaña addressed the situation for the first time at a roundtable in London on Friday, where Gascón was expected but did not attend. Saldaña said she was “processing everything” and felt “very sad” about the situation.

“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 was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity,” said Saldaña, who avoiding saying Gascón’s name.

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