Citing The Hollywood Reporter, Out is saying that trans Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón is being quietly removed from Netflix’s Oscar campaign for that film following the controversies surrounding her old X posts (formerly tweets).
Gascón—the first ever out transgender person to be nominated for an acting Oscar—was originally expected to fly into LA this week to begin awards campaigning at the AFI Awards luncheon, Critics Choice Awards and others. However, in the wake of controversial posts involving everything from Islam to George Floyd, Netflix is reportedly not fronting her accommodations or transportation costs from Spain. (She may still attend events such as the upcoming Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars.) In addition, Gascón’s name has also been removed from email blasts and ad reads promoting the film for awards.
Some events, including the Santa Barbara Film Festival, were considering canceling their Emilia Pérez events entirely if Gascón didn’t back out. Emilia Pérez co-star Zoe Saldaña said she was “saddened” by Gascón’s tweets, adding that she “does not support” the actresses’ past statements, per TheWrap. “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad,” Saldaña said during a recent Q&A in London.
Gascón—a onetime front-runner who has no plans to remove herself from the Academy Award race—later apologized for the posts in press statements, telling Variety, “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” and saying she is not racist. She later deactivated her X account.