Netflix Removes Karla Sofía Gascón From 'Emilia Pérez' Oscars Campaign: Reports
Netflix won't be focusing on Karla Sofía Gascón as it campaigns for 'Emilia Pérez' ahead of the Academy Awards.
Netflix won’t be focusing on Karla Sofía Gascón as it campaigns for Emilia Pérez ahead of the Academy Awards. According to reports from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service is distancing itself from the Spanish actress after her offensive posts about Muslims and race went viral last week.
Gascón — who is the first out transgender woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars — was scheduled to come to the United States from Spain to appear at the Critics Choice Awards, Directors Guild of America, and the Producers Guild of America Awards. She is no longer expected to attend any of these events, Variety reports.
Sources told both outlets that the streaming company is no longer communicating directly with Gascón and that Netflix will no longer cover her expenses related to travel and styling for awards shows. THR also reported that the actress was nixed from email blasts and ad-reads marketing the film for awards season, and that some billboards including images of Gascón will soon feature other co-stars in addition to her or exclusively.
The reports come as a For Your Consideration image, shared by Variety‘s Clayton Davis, highlighted the film’s 13 Oscar nods and included no mention of Gascón’s Best Actress nomination nor the title of the film, instead highlighting Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, who weren’t nominated, on the poster.
Gascón, a rep for the actress, and a rep for Netflix did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
On Friday, Gascón’s co-star Zoe Saldaña said during a Q&A that she does “not support” her co-star’s posts and was still “processing” her feelings. (Saldaña is up for Best Supporting Actress.) The day prior, tweets by Gascón from 2020 and 2021 surfaced online, that included controversial comments about Muslims, the killing of George Floyd, and diversity at the Oscars. At least 12 posts were aimed at Muslims, as Gascón described Islam as an “infection for humanity” and described the migration of Muslims into Spain as a “planned invasion.”
Gascón even made a thread following the police murder of Floyd, writing that she thought “very few people ever cared” about “a drug addict swindler.” Gascón deleted her account shortly after and told THR that she did so because she could “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.”
She then joined CNN En Español over the weekend for a tearful, hourlong interview in which she claimed she had been subject to “cancel culture.” During that interview, she stated that she wouldn’t withdraw from Oscar contention. Multiple outlets confirmed that Netflix was not involved nor aware that she was doing that interview.