Karla Sofía Gascón Responds to Criticism Over Resurfaced Tweets About George Floyd, Islam

Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón is embroiled in controversy once again after users on X found posts from 2020 and 2021, in which she shared controversial comments about Muslims, the killing of George Floyd, and diversity at the Oscars.

“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” the actress said in a statement to Variety. “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.”

Writer Sarah Hagi shared a thread on X early on Thursday, screen-grabbing at least 12 posts where Gascón described Islam as an “infection for humanity” and described the migration of Muslims into Spain a “planned invasion.” Gascón’s posts were deleted Thursday.

In one X post, Gascón shared a photo of a Muslim family having breakfast showing a woman in a burka. “Islam is marvelous with no sort of machismo,” she wrote in the caption. “Women are respected, and when they’re respected, they let them have a small square in their face to see their eyes and ears, but only if they behave. Even if they dress this way because they want to. What a disgusting thing of humanity.”

Separately, Gascón made a thread following the police murder of Floyd, writing that she thought “very few people ever cared” about “a drug addict swindler.” She wrote, per Variety, “His death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys without rights and consider policemen killers. They’re wrong.”

And in 2021, the year Nomadland won Best Picture and actors from Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah won awards, she described the Oscars as “a ceremony for independent and protest films.” She 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.”
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Netflix and the Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ironically, the controversy comes just a day after she said she was receiving “toxicity and hate speech” on social media for being the first openly trans person nominated for an acting Oscar. The statement came after she claimed that her fellow nominee Fernanda Torres’ team was speaking “badly” about her and her film.

“In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience,” she said Wednesday. “No one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”

The conversation around Gascón’s posts comes after her film Emilia Pérez has faced intense criticism for being an inauthentic portrayal of Mexican culture and trans experience. Gascón, who’s from Spain, plays the titular role of a Mexican former cartel leader. Online critics have also pointed out that French director Jacques Audiard does not speak Spanish, did not film the musical in Mexico, nor did he include Mexican-born actresses for any of its three main roles.