Karla Sofía Gascón’s Lead Actress nomination announcement received a very muted applause at last night’s BAFTA Film Awards.
The Emilia Pérez star, 52, has been mired in controversy after several abrasive social media posts resurfaced and sparked controversy amid allegations of racism, homophobia and body shaming.
It includes comments which called George Floyd a ‘drug addict swindler’, and writing, amid the Covid pandemic, that ‘the Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase’.
And while the movie took several gongs at Sunday’s celebrated event, with director Jacques Audiard accepting Best Film Not In The English language, and Zoe Saldaña winning Best Supporting Actress, there was a decidedly lukewarm reception for its lead protagonist.
Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor – who play romantic rivals in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – took to the stage to present the accolade, which was won by Mikey Madison for Anora, announcing each name as a snippet of their performance was played.
As each actress was featured, they were met with thunderous clapping and cheering – with one exception.
In an awkward moment, Karla received very little fanfare as an emotional scene of her sorrowfully singing to co-star Zoe Saldaña played.
The moment was made all the more wince-worthy as the camera panned over to the actresses ahead of announcing the winner – but as Karla wasn’t present at the event, only a headshot of hers featured.
But while the controversial actress faced little love from the audience, the French filmmaker, 72, behind the movie, said ‘he could kiss’ the absent star while accepting his award this weekend.
During his speech Jacques thanked the cast before ending his speech by saying: ‘I also thank you Karla Sofía, who I kiss’.
Meanwhile Zoe, 46, in her expletive acceptance speech read a long list of persons she wished to thank, one of whom was Karla.
The director previously branded the actress’ tweets as ‘inexcusable’ and ‘hateful’ saying they had ‘affected’ the pair’s relationship.
He told Deadline: ‘The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust. And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected’.
Before adding: ‘It’s as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.’
Karla has come under fire after her old social media comments were uncovered, showing her criticising Islam, George Floyd, Adele and co-star Selena.
The posts, which were found by Muslim writer Sarah Hagi and translated into English by Variety, have since been deleted from Gascón’s X account (formerly known as Twitter).
One post, from November 2020, read: ‘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.’
Another post from September 2020 featured a photo of a Muslim family dining in a restaurant in traditional Islamic attire, which included the wife covered from head-to-toe in a black burqa.
‘Islam is marvelous, without any machismo. Women are respected, and when they are so respected they are left with a little squared hole on their faces for their eyes to be visible and their mouths, but only if she behaves. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY,’ Karla wrote.
In 2021 Karla wrote that ‘Islam fails to comply with international rights’, and ‘I am so sick of so much of this s**t, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the fucking beliefs of morons that violate human rights’.
She also posted about George Floyd, whose murder by Minneapolis police, as he protested ‘I can’t breathe’, sparked the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
Karla wrote: ‘I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but 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 to be assassins. They are both wrong.’
The actress added: ‘Too many things to reflect on regarding the behavior of our species every time an event occurs. Perhaps it is no longer a question of racism, but of social classes that feel threatened by each other. Maybe that’s the only real difference.’
Karla, who is the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Oscar, also slammed the Hollywood ceremony in a scathing post from 2021.
‘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. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala,’ she posted.
She also criticised China during the Covid pandemic, writing: ‘The Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase.’
Responding to the controversy in a statement to DailyMail.com, Karla said, ‘I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt.’
She continued, ‘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.’
Her posts have already been criticised by The Muslim Public Affairs Council, who issued a statement to The Wrap.
‘Deleted or not, these tweets are hurtful, offensive, and shocking, most especially coming from someone who is a member of another vulnerable community,’ they said.
‘Muslims are part of every community, including the transgender community.’
Elsewhere in a 2022 tweet, Karla criticised her co-star Selena Gomez, commenting on a now-iconic photo of the star and Hailey Bieber posing together, despite ongoing rumours about a feud due to Hailey’s marriage to Selena’s ex Justin Bieber, as reported by The Latin Times.
‘She’s a rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can and will never stop bothering her ex-boyfriend and his wife,’ Karla wrote.
The backlash grew when an X user pointed out that just months before sharing the comment, Karla had reposted news about Emilia Pérez, where her name appeared alongside Selena and Zoe as potential cast members.
The timing raised questions about whether Karla knew she might work with Selena when making these harsh remarks.
In another post from May 2020, she body shamed Adele, speculating about loose skin on the singer’s arms after her weight-loss transformation.
She also took aim at Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro in yet another controversial post.
Following the backlash, the cast and crew of Emilia Perez have distanced themselves from her, as well as Netflix itself.
But as award season continues, Karla is up against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) for Best Actress at the upcoming Oscars.
Emilia Pérez was also recognised in several categories including top honour Best Picture, Best Director for Jacques Audiard, Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature.
In the film, Karla portrays titular character Emilia Pérez, who is a cartel leader who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe) to help fake her death so that she can finally live authentically as her true self.
The star completed most of her gender transition in 2018 and announced her new identity after acting in Mexican telenovelas for years.
The Mexican movie, which has received mixed reviews despite its starring cast including Selena Gomez, is up for a staggering 11 nominations.
However, it too has faced its fair share of controversy.
A song from the critically-acclaimed Spanish language thriller has been slammed online as ‘offensive’ for it’s simplistic explanation of gender-affirming surgery.
Called La Vaginoplastia, the song sees Zoe’s character Rita Mora Castro speak to doctors about surgery for her client Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte.
Manitas is a cartel kingpin who hires Saldana’s character to help her disappear and covertly transition into a woman.
The song, which is sung in English, sees Rita approach doctors and ask ‘I’d like to know about sex change operation,’.
The doctor then replies ‘man to woman or woman to man?’.
When Saldana’s character tells him from ‘man to woman,’ the doctor replies: ‘From penis to vagina’.
A chorus of nonsensical lyrics then follows, including doctors chanting ‘from penis to vagina’ accompanied by patients dancing as they lie on hospital beds.
After Emilia Pérez became the big winner at the Golden Globes last month, scooping four prizes after receiving the most nominations, people have been quick to slam the song as a ‘tasteless’ and ‘ridiculously simplistic’.
The film, which was released on Netflix in late 2024, has been quietly adding to its plaudits for months, starting with the huge splash it made at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and the first Best Actress Award for an ensemble.
The film has some tangled origins. The French production is based on Audiard’s opera libretto of the same name, which was in turn loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute.
Set around Mexico City, it centres around topics such as family, ambition, possibility of change, cartels, human disappearances, gender-affirmation, money and corruption.
It focuses on cartel boss Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón) who has a smart, but undervalued lawyer named Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) kidnapped.
