Updated February 12, 2025 at 16:24 PM ET
SEVILLE, Spain – According to an old adage, there is no such a thing as bad publicity.
And that seems to have been Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón's mindset up until late last week. After more than a week of interviews and statements defending her offensive tweets about Islam and George Floyd that have resurfaced, Gascón vowed in a statement on Instagram to let her movie, which leads in Oscar nominations, speak for itself.
In her home country of Spain, what seemed to be the public downfall of an Academy Award best actress contender has morphed into a broader dialogue about politics and how the public views celebrities.
Emilia Pérez, and Gascón's very good year
After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, Emilia Pérez – and Gascón's role as the title character – were celebrated. Gascón herself received a joint best actress award at Cannes along with her Emilia Pérez co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz. In Spain, she was also recognized by the government with an Arcoíris award, which celebrates those "raising awareness, supporting and defending the rights of LGBTI people." She won best actress at the European Film Awards, where Emilia Pérez took home four other prizes. The film also led in wins on the film side at the Golden Globes.
Still, the movie itself has prompted critiques about its portrayals of Mexico and the trans experience. But that didn't stop the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from giving Emilia Pérez 13 Oscar nominations in January – a record for a movie not in English. So at least during awards season, those who were critical of the film seemed to be losing the battle, as Emilia Pérez was cruising toward a big Oscars night.
The tweets; the apology
Then, in January, journalist Sarah Hagi dove into Karla Sofía Gascón's timeline on X. She found a number of tweets in Spanish where the actress used offensive language and slurs to refer to the religion of Islam and Muslim people, in addition to others, including Chinese people, George Floyd, Hollywood at large, and the progressive government in Spain.
Gascón wrote on Twitter, "how many times will history have to expel the Moors from Spain," and called Islam a "hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured." Referring to COVID-19 vaccines, Gascón said: "the Chinese vaccine comes with a mandatory microchip, and two spring rolls." She also referred to George Floyd as a "drug-addicted con artist."
In a statement via Netflix, which distributed the film in North America and the U.K., Gascón apologized for the tweets: "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 controversy could have ended there, but it didn't.
Gascón closed her X account, telling The Hollywood Reporter in a statement: "I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore." She added: "I am only responsible for what I say, not for what others say I say or what others interpret from what I say." The actress suggested that there was something "very dark" behind the circulation of her old tweets; and ended her statement with a clear message to critics: "The more you try to sink me, the stronger it will make me. The greater the victory will be."
Gascón was determined to set the record straight. In an interview with CNN en Español, she said: "I've been called a racist, I want to make it clear that I am not. I've been judged, I've been sentenced, sacrificed, crucified and stoned, without a fair hearing, without the chance to defend myself."
In Spain, where Gascón is from, the story has been all over the news, and written about in op-ed after op-ed.
Karla Sofía Gascón is a trans woman, and that matters in Spain
To give you an idea how big of a deal Karla Sofía Gascón's Oscar nomination for Emilia Pérez was in Spain, here are two relevant details: First: Gascón is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. And second: if she took the Oscar home, she would be the first Spanish actor to win the prize for a leading role — Gascón is originally from the town of Alcobendas, outside of Madrid, which is also the hometown of Penélope Cruz, the only Spanish actress to win an Oscar for a supporting role.
In Spain, many heard about Karla Sofía Gascón for the first time when buzz started to build around Emilia Pérez. International success for a Spaniard means a reason for the country to be proud. In this case, it wasn't just a Spanish actress, it was a trans woman.
Notably, the international success of Emilia Pérez – and an Oscar nod for Gascón – comes not long after Spain passed some of the most progressive trans rights legislation in Europe. The legislation passed in 2023 was championed by Spain's equality minister at the time, Irene Montero, who represented the left-wing Podemos party in a coalition government led by Pedro Sánchez. It bans "conversion therapy" and allows citizens over 16 years old to change their legally registered gender without medical supervision. The law was divisive in Spain. Moreno faced passionate opposition from right-leaning parties, as well as some who believed it threatened women's rights and safety. Ultimately, Montero was ousted from Sánchez's coalition government, but her legal reforms stayed, and the "trans law" was celebrated by members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Roberto Enriquez, also known as Bob Pop, is a Spanish influencer and writer. He too celebrated Gascón's nomination. "From the members of the LGBTQ+ collective, we found that Karla Sofia is someone who has arrived at a very, very difficult place for someone like her," he told NPR. But then, Bob Pop says, the tweets appeared.
The reaction in Spain
In Spain, the news is often accompanied by commentary. News shows rely on "tertulias" or roundtable discussions, where commentators, who are well-versed in current affairs but not necessarily subject matter experts, weigh in about the topics of the day. "Tertulias" are a tradition that illustrates a predilection for freedom of expression in Spain, an appreciation for the value of listening to someone else' opinions and a capacity to engage in civil debate. So when Gascón's tweets resurfaced, there was plenty of opinion in Spain.
Elvira Lindo, a celebrated Spanish writer who wrote about the scandal for Spain's leading newspaper, El País, told NPR that initially the reaction in Spain was astonishment. She agrees with those who say that Gascón's tweets appear to show her political leanings: "These messages show us a character that is reactionary, and ideologically close to the political right in Spain today."
Gascón's identity as a trans woman has become central to the debate around her tweets. One conservative columnist accused the left of "canceling" Gascón because "she expressed ideas that no one can have, much less a trans woman." Another columnist argued that the political left in Spain forgave Gascón's comments, giving her a pass that a conservative man, for example, would have never enjoyed: "Those who see fascism and far-rightism everywhere curiously do not see it in the Spanish actress."
Bob Pop believes that Gascón's tweets are ironic: "I think that she is not aware that the hate speech she has against Black people, Islamic people, poor people, the government … are weapons for the people who think that she has no right to be herself as a trans woman." In other words, he believes, Gascón is giving ammunition to the same actors who oppose her own rights as a trans woman in Spain.
But while in the United States a star can fall overnight if they do something wrong, in Spain, Lindo says, things are different: "Spain has been more tolerant, or more open to forgiveness." She says that nobody deserves the kind of harsh punishment that Gascón has been subject to.
In an afternoon show at La Sexta Television, a channel that is commonly perceived as left-leaning, an anchor said, sarcastically: "I am not sure what the plan is here. Send her to Guantanamo?" To which another commentator responded: "This campaign of harassment is deplorable. We are now politicizing gender, sex, and the air we breathe."
This past Saturday, at Spain's Goya Awards ceremony, Emilia Pérez took home the award for the best European film. Many of the attendants told El Mundo they were sympathetic with Gascón, making it clear that, although her tweets were unacceptable to them, she had not been treated fairly and she did not deserve to be "canceled."
The road ahead for Gascón
In the past few days, in Spain, the tendency to "forgive" Karla Sofía Gascón has evolved into a broader discussion of political hypocrisy and how the public sees celebrities.
Some, using humor, have pointed out what they see as a fundamental contradiction of values in the U.S. The journalist Nuria Labari argued that in an "openly racist country," public outrage seems to focus more on "escándalo estético" – aesthetic scandal – than on what she describes as "politics of evil that is in action with impunity."
"I dream that Karla Sofía wins the Oscar, and that she has the courage to offer, for the good of all, an openly racist speech," Labari wrote. "I say this because perhaps, if an award-winning actress says it, the world will react, the left will react."
Pau Luque Sánchez, a professor of philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, wrote in El País: "People are turned into global role models, and then dragged down under the pretext of having discovered that they are, after all, people."
When asked whether critics in Spain had gone too far, Bob Pop told me: "Maybe we are going too far, and I am part of that. But I think that maybe we went too far when we adored Karla Sofia without knowing her. I think we are going too far always. We are going too far when we create heroes or heroines. We are going too far when we try to destroy them, because they have disappointed us."
But the damage for Gascón's Oscar prospects has most likely been done. Last week, The Hollywood Reporter said that Netflix dropped its Oscars campaign for the actress. NPR reached out to Netflix about the campaign but has not heard back. Gascón eventually posted on Instagram saying that she will not speak up any further, and just let the movie speak for itself.
We are still three weeks away from the Academy Awards. But the reality is that voting, which began on Tuesday, closes on Feb. 18 — likely not enough time for Karla Sofía Gascón to make a Hollywood comeback.
Copyright 2025 NPR
