Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón appeared to address the controversial remarks she made about her Emilia Pérez co-star Selena Gomez in resurfaced tweets.
Sofia Gascón, who deleted her X account following the resurfacing of her racist, homophobic, and anti-Islamic comments, took to Instagram to share a message that was both defiant and apologetic, opening with ‘THEY ALREADY WON.’
She continued: ‘The first thing I’d like to do is ask for the most sincere forgiveness from those who feel bad about the way I’ve expressed myself at any stage of my life.’
Later in her post, Sofia Gascón seemingly referenced the 2022 tweet about Gomez, where she called her co-star a ‘rich rat’ while commenting on her rumored feud with Hailey Bieber, who is married to Selena’s ex, Justin Bieber.
The tweet read: ‘She’s a rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can and will never stop bothering her ex-boyfriend and his wife.’
Addressing the backlash, Sofia Gascón wrote: ‘They have created posts as if it were me insulting even my colleagues… Things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality, words that without the background only seem like hate.’
She concluded, ‘Everything as long as I don’t win anything and I sink.’
Her Instagram post comes after she released a statement and revealed that she’d been receiving death threats.
‘I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect me and my family, so at their request I am closing my account on X,’ Sofia Gascón, 52, wrote in the statement via The Hollywood Reporter.
‘I have been threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion,’ she wrote.
‘I have a wonderful daughter to protect, whom I love madly and who supports me in everything.’
Karla is the first openly transgender nominee for the Best Actress Academy Award. She is nominated for her role in Emilia Perez.
‘I have defended each and every one of the minorities in this world and supported any event against racism, freedom of religion or homophobia, in the same way that I have criticized the hypocrisy that underlies them, because the first thing I am self-critical of is myself,’ she added.
The new statement comes on the heels of her first apology, in which she said she was ‘deeply sorry’ for any ‘hurt’ and ‘pain’ she may have caused in tweets she made on X.
The posts were uncovered by Muslim writer Sarah Hagi and translated into English by Variety.
One post, from November 2020 read: ‘I’m sorry. Is it just my impression or is there 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. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.’
Another post from September 2020 featured a photo of a Muslim family dining in a restaurant in traditional Islamic attire, which included the wife covered from head-to-toe in a black burqa.
‘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,’ Gascón wrote.
She also posted about George Floyd, whose murder by Minneapolis police, as he protested ‘I can’t breathe’, sparked the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
Gascón wrote: ‘I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys without rights and consider policemen to be assassins. They are both wrong.’
The actress added: ‘Too many things to reflect on regarding the behavior of our species every time an event occurs. Perhaps it is no longer a question of racism, but of social classes that feel threatened by each other. Maybe that’s the only real difference.’
And even though she hopes to take home the Oscar next month for her role in Emilia Perez, even that revered ceremony didn’t escape her criticism in 2021.
‘More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala,’ she posted.
She also criticized China during the Covid pandemic, writing: ‘The Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase.’
Karla also body shamed Adele over her weight loss in another resurfaced X post.
She speculated the singer, 36, had loose skin on her arms after her body transformation in a May 6, 2020 post.
Sharing photos of Adele in glamorous gowns, the Spanish actress wrote: ‘COVID passed, and she went overboard with the sleeves, or she went under the knife and they didn’t remove the skin from her arms @Adele.’
Responding to the controversy in a statement to DailyMail.com, Gascón said, ‘I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt.’
She continued, ‘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.’
Gascón’s posts have already been criticized by The Muslim Public Affairs Council, who issued a statement to The Wrap on Thursday.
‘Deleted or not, these tweets are hurtful, offensive, and shocking, most especially coming from someone who is a member of another vulnerable community,’ they said.
‘Muslims are part of every community, including the transgender community.’
Sofia Gascón is up against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) for Best Actress at the upcoming Oscars.
Her film Emilia Pérez was also recognized in several categories including top honor Best Picture, Best Director for Jacques Audiard, Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature.
In the film, Karla portrays titular character Emilia Perez, who is a cartel leader who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe Saldana) to help fake her death so that she can finally live authentically as her true self.
The star completed most of her gender transition in 2018 and announced her new identity after acting in Mexican telenovelas for years.