Karla Sofia Gascon no longer part of ‘Emilia Perez’ Oscar campaign material: report

Los Angeles, Feb 5 (PTI) Netflix has reportedly pulled away itself from Karla Sofia Gascon, the star of its multiple Oscar-nominated film “Emilia Perez”, amid the controversy over her old social media posts that were viewed as Islamophobic and racist.

According to a report by entertainment outlet Variety, Gascon — who made history as the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards — no longer features on the new ‘For Your Consideration’ advertisement which highlights the 13 Oscar nominations for the film backed by the streamer.

After news about her old posts started going viral last month, Gascon issued an apology and sat down for an interview with CNN en Espanol over the weekend that she booked without Netflix’s involvement, according to Variety.

On Tuesday, she once again addressed the situation in an Instagram post, tagging multiple publications, including Variety.

“They want to subject me to ‘cancel culture’. I ask the Hollywood experts, the journalists who know me and have followed my career — How can I move forward?” Gascon wrote in Spanish.

The ‘For Your Consideration’ ad includes its nods for best picture, international feature, director (Jacques Audiard), supporting actress (Zoe Saldana), and original song (“El Mal”). The film’s title as well as any images of Gascon have been removed from much of the campaign material, the report stated.

The campaign now prominently features Saldana along with other co-stars Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, who weren’t even nominated, it added.

Before the scandal broke out, Gascon was expected to travel from her residence in Spain to Los Angeles for the second phase of the Oscars campaign.

Sources told the publication that that Netflix and the PR agency The Lede Company have severed direct communication with the actor and are only in touch with her through Gascon’s United Talent Agency representative, Jeremy Barber.

The streamer is also no longer covering expenses for “her travel to the various awards shows or her styling for any appearances at these events”, they said.

Therefore, she isn’t expected to attend any of the upcoming award showcases, including the AFI Awards luncheon, Critics Choice Awards, the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Producers Guild of America Awards. In case she wants to participate in these events, Gascon would have to pay for everything, right from her airfare to her accommodations, added the insiders.

Old posts from Gascon’s account on Twitter resurfaced on January 30, some going as far back as 2016, that took aim at Muslims’ dress, language and culture in her native Spain. She also suggested that Islam be banned.

And less than a month after George Floyd, a Black man, who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, prompting a national reckoning with police brutality and racism, Gascon offered her assessment of Floyd as a drug addict who “very few people ever cared” for.

Gascon was a regular in Mexican telenovelas before transitioning in 2018. In “Emilia Perez”, she plays both a menacing cartel kingpin and the woman who emerges after the kingpin fakes his own death, Emilia Perez. Years later, Emilia contacts the lawyer who facilitated her transition (Saldana) to help her reunite with her wife (Gomez) and their children.

The 97th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on March 2.