While Emilia Pérez has garnered buzz and acclaim as a darling of Hollywood’s ongoing awards season, the Netflix movie’s star, Karla Sofía Gascón, has been mired in controversy over resurfaced social media posts.

Emilia Pérez, a musical about a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, dominates this year’s Academy Awards nominations with 13 nods, breaking the record for the most nominations for a non-English language film at the Oscars.

Gascón, 52, holds the distinction of being the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Academy Award. The Spanish star earned a nod for her performance as the titular character in Jacques Audiard’s musical crime film, nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

However, on January 30, journalist Sarah Hagi shared screenshots of several posts from the screen star’s X, formerly Twitter, account. In the screenshots shared by Hagi, Gascón criticized Islam in a number of posts. Screenshots showed she also mused on Adolf Hitler and likened the 2021 Oscars show to “a Black Lives Matter demonstration.”

In other posts, Gascón also opined on the late George Floyd. Floyd’s May 2020 death sparked worldwide protests after a video circulated online showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes as he gasped for breath.

While Gascón has apologized for the posts and deleted her X account, the fallout has seen calls for the actress to be stripped of her Oscar nomination. There have also been reports that she will not be attending a number of other awards shows preceding March 2’s Academy Awards ceremony.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Gascón and Netflix via email for comment.

What Has Karla Sofía Gascón Said?

Gascón dedicated several X posts—which were translated from her native Spanish—to criticizing Islam. In a post from 2016, she opined that the religion “is becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.”

In 2020, she wrote on the platform: “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. Maybe next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”

Also in 2020, Gascón weighed in on George Floyd’s death, writing: “I truly believe that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and a hustler, 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.”

Gascón also criticized the 2021 Oscars broadcast, which took place after the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted life and industry across the globe.

“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,” Gascón said. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.”

A post from 2019 saw Gascón stating that she didn’t “understand so much about the world war against Hitler, he simply had his opinion about Jews.”‘

Soon after the posts were made public, Gascón issued an apology.

“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón said in a statement. “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.”

Will Karla Sofía Gascón Attend the Oscars?

While there have been unconfirmed reports that Gascón will be skipping other awards shows, it has not been publicly stated whether she will attend the upcoming Academy Awards, arguably the most prestigious event on Hollywood’s calendar.

In a recent interview with CNN en Español anchor Juan Carlos Arciniegas, Gascón reiterated her apology and said that she didn’t recognize some of the resurfaced posts. She also insisted that she would not be seeking to withdraw her Oscar nomination.

“I cannot step down from an Oscar nomination because I have not committed any crime nor have I harmed anyone,” she said. “I am neither racist nor anything that all these people have tried to make others believe I am.”

During the interview, Gascón denied reports that in 2022, she called Selena Gomez, one of her co-stars in Emilia Pérez, a “rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can.”

“It’s not mine, of course, I have never said anything about my colleague, I would never refer to her that way,” Gascón told Arciniegas.

“I have been judged, condemned, sacrificed, crucified, and stoned without a trial and without the option to defend myself,” she further stated.

Has Netflix Responded?

As of press time, Netflix has yet to issue a public statement on the controversy surrounding Gascón.

Deadline and Variety are among the news outlets to have reported that Netflix was not informed ahead of time of Gascón’s recent interview with CNN.

What Is Gascón’s Role In ‘Emilia Pérez’?

In Emilia Pérez, which is directed by Jacques Audiard, Gascón portrays the titular character, a Mexican drug cartel kingpin formerly known as Juan “Manitas” Del Monte.

The mob boss enlists lawyer Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña) to help her go into hiding so that she can undergo gender-affirming surgery.