Karla Sofía Gascón‘s Oscar campaign has hit yet another bump in the road.
The “Emilia Pérez” star, who made history by becoming the first openly transgender performer ever nominated for an Academy Award, is on the receiving end of another wave of criticism over some of her past tweets. On Thursday, social media users began to share years-old X posts from Gascón in which she criticized the reaction to George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and also expressed support for religions that “go against European values” being banned from European countries like her home nation of Spain.
“Let me get this straight, a guy tries to pass off a counterfeit bill after consuming methamphetamine, an idiot policeman arrives and goes too far in arresting him, killing him, ruining the lives of his family and his colleagues, and turning the guy with the bill into a martyr hero,” Gascón wrote on X (translated from Spanish) in reference to Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests that it inspired.
“I truly believe that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and a hustler,” Gascón continued. “But his death has served to highlight once again that there are those who still consider Black people to be monkeys without rights and those who consider the police to be murderers. All wrong.”
“Sorry, is it just my impression or are there more and 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,” Gascón wrote in a different tweet from November 2020. “Maybe next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”
The actress added: “Until we ban religions that go against European values and violate human rights, such as Islam, under the protection of freedom of worship, we will not end part of the huge problem we face. Faith manipulates those who cling to faith.”
it’s so insane that karla sofía gascón still has these tweets up. straight up have never seen tweets this racist from someone actively campaigning to win an ACADEMY AWARD. there are more than a dozen… pic.twitter.com/1rcNzkJXuo
— sarah hagi (@KindaHagi) January 30, 2025
Earlier this morning, some of Gascón’s aforementioned tweets began getting deleted from X. That hasn’t stopped users online from screenshotting, sharing and spotlighting the statements, however.
The controversy comes after Gascón already made headlines this week for implying in an interview that some of the supporters of fellow Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres were working to try to tear down “Emilia Pérez” and Gascón’s Oscar chances.
The actress’ comments prompted many to wonder whether she had violated the Academy’s rules about nominees disparaging other contenders. The Academy quickly determined, however, that Gascón had not violated official Oscars policy and the actress clarified her remarks in a statement Wednesday: “I am an enormous fan of Fernanda Torres and it has been wonderful getting to know her the past few months. In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience.”
