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Emilia Perez star Karla Sofia Gascon offers an apology to everyone triggered by her past tweets about certain races and religions, taking a hiatus from X. The actress made history this month, becoming the first transgender performer nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Actress category for her role on Emilia Perez, the most nominated film this years’ Oscars. The film saw the star portray a cartel lord, who fakes his own death and assumes a new identity as a woman, Emilia Perez, with Gascon playing both the male and female versions of her character. Her Best Actress nomination stirred mixed feelings on the internet, with some netizens voicing their discontent, sometimes veering into the thin line between reason and sheer discrimination.
Before long, eagle-eyed netizens dug out old tweets from Karla Sofia Gascon to back their call for her Oscars disqualification. The controversial tweets, some dating as far back as 2016, saw the actress rant about sensitive issues, from COVID-19 and Muslim dressing to George Floyd and BTS, sharing offensive takes on these topics that appear to drive hate. The resurfaced tweets left netizens outraged, with the marginalized groups targeted in the posts turning on the actress and thanking keen-eyed netizens for exposing Gascon for who she truly was.
Karla Sofia Gascon Apologizes For Past Offensive Tweets
Amid the backlash, the Emilia Perez actress Karla Sofia Gascon stepped forward to express her regrets for the past tweets, with a note of apology to anyone she must have offended with her X posts. She wrote in a statement to Variety,
“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. 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.”
The Emilia Perez star Karla Sofia Gascon proceeded to deactivate her X account. In her statement, the actress explained the reason behind deleting her social media account, saying she could no longer “allow this campaign of hate and misinformation” to affect her and her family. Going further, Gascon revealed since the posts went public, she’s faced death threats, insults, harassment, and abuse “to the point of exhaustion.” She believed her decision was the best means to protect her daughter from it all.
Karlia Sofia Gascon went on to reiterate that while her tweets may seem offensive, she’d always considered social media as a diary, to express her “agreements for disagreements” on issues that touch her at any point. She also acknowledged that her perception of these issues may change at any time, but the fact remained she’d defended every minority group in the world, supported freedom of religion, and stood against racism and homophobia.
Gascon Takes Swipe at Religion, Diversity in Resurfaced Tweets
In the disputed tweets, Karla Sofia Gascon appeared to spew hate against particular minorities while addressing sensitive subjects. In a 2020 tweet, the star took a swipe at Islam’s treatment of women, writing,
“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.”
That same year, she shared a heated post insinuating George Floyd could be “a drug addict or a swindler,” just days after his death at the head of a cop. Another post saw Gascon attack the Oscars for recognizing more Africans and Koreans at the 2021 award show. She has also taken swipes at Christianity, Catholicism, and the BLM movement among others, all of which came haunting her on what would have been her greatest career moment yet.
