Up until the middle of last week, popular Hollywood star Zoe Saldaña was the frontrunner to win long-deserved recognition: an Academy Award for best supporting actress for “Emilia Perez,” a film that she has said is supposed to deliver a “powerful” message of hope to marginalized communities.
But Saldaña’s chances for an Oscar have probably slipped away, according to Hollywood Reporter’s executive awards editor Scott Feinberg. So have the Oscars prospects of Saldaña’s “Emilia Perez” colleagues and of the film itself, ever since Karla Sofía Gascón, the trans actor who plays the titular transgender cartel boss Emilia Perez, has become embroiled in an ugly and shocking scandal over her history of posting offensive, bigoted views about a wide array of marginalized communities.
Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon arrives for the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 5, 2025. (Photo by Etienne Laurent / AFP) (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
In the past week, the Spanish actor’s Oscar prospects, and entire life, have “completely imploded,” Feinberg said. This is after a journalist resurfaced her past Twitter comments about Islam, George Floyd, Oscars diversity efforts and co-star Selena Gomez, among other things. “The whole thing has since gone viral” and Gascón has become “completely toxic,” Feinberg said, even after Gascón quickly deactivated her X account. “At this point, Mel Gibson is probably more popular in town,” Feinberg added.
Over the past few days, Gascón has repeatedly apologized for her tweets, and she gave an interview to CNN en Español, in which she tearfully insisted she’s “not a racist,” suggested that her comments were misconstrued and wondered if she and her movie were the target of a smear campaign to derail their Oscars chances. Gascón also is nominated for a best actress Oscar, making Academy Awards history as the first transgender woman to be nominated for a leading performance. Meanwhile, “Emilia Perez” was, up until recently, a frontrunner to win best picture after scoring a near-record-breaking 13 nominations.
But Feinberg said Gascón ultimately “did this to herself.” Not only has she destroyed her Oscar chances, she may never get work in Hollywood again. Moreover, Feinberg said “she has also severely damaged the Oscar prospects of her film.” And “most unfairly of all,” she has probably damaged the awards prospects of her colleagues, “including Saldaña, who has been the best supporting actress frontrunner for months,” Feinberg said. Saldaña’s front-runner status was helped by her winning the Golden Globe award for best supporting actress.
But in speaking to Academy members in recent days, Feinberg said, “Many are going to have a hard time voting for ‘Emilia Pérez’ in any category, given that Emilia Pérez herself has become toxic.”
On Friday, Saldaña was forced into doing damage control for “Emilia Perez,” while distancing herself and the film from Gascón, according to another report in The Hollywood Reporter.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 15: Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana speak during the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations for “Emilia Pérez” at SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center on October 15, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad,” Saldaña said during a Q&A in London, alongside fellow “Emilia Perez” Oscar nominees, writer-director Jacques Audiard and songwriters-composers Camille and Clément Ducol. Gascón was originally scheduled to attend the Q&A as well, but did not, The Hollywood Reporter said.
“It makes me really sad because I don’t support (it), and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group,” Saldaña also said. “I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural and gender equity.”
“And it just saddens me,” she said.
Feinberg agreed that the controversy is “sad,” as well as “shocking,” in large part because Gascón gave “a courageous and daring performance” in “Emilia Perez.” Her awards season success also “represented hope and progress for a lot of other people,” Feinberg also said.
Gascon told CNN en Español that she would not renounce her Oscar nomination “because what I have done is a job and what is being valued is my acting work,” according to a translation provided by The Hollywood Reporter.
“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.”
At one point, Gascón suggested that some social media comments attributed to her may have been falsified, notably a tweet in which she allegedly called her “Emilia Perez” co-star Selena Gomez a “rich rat.”
“It’s not mine, of course,” Gascón told CNN en Español.. “I have never said anything about my colleague I would never refer to her that way.”
On Friday, Gascón also released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter saying that she has received death threats in the wake of the scandal.
