Karla Sofía Gascón’s X/Twitter account was deactivated on Friday morning after the Emilia Pérez star apologized for offensive posts she had made in the past.
The transgender actress expressed deep regret for her old posts, in which she made insensitive comments about Muslims, the Oscars’ diversity, the LGBTQ+ movement, and the death of George Floyd. Gascón’s account was active just a few hours before, but it now appears to have been deactivated as she works to strengthen her Oscar campaign.
Gascón is hoping to make history as the first openly transgender woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. She said, “I want to address the conversation surrounding my past social media posts that have caused pain. As someone from a marginalized community, I understand suffering, and I am truly sorry to those I have hurt. I have spent my life fighting for a better world. I believe light will always prevail over darkness.”
In 2021, she wrote: “The Oscars are increasingly becoming a ceremony for independent and protest films. I wasn’t sure if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration, or the 8M. And the ceremony itself was ugly.”
She also made controversial comments about George Floyd, stating, “I think very few people truly cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and swindler, but his death has shown that some still see black people as monkeys without rights and police officers as killers. They’re all wrong.”
In other tweets reviewed by Deadline before her account was deactivated, Gascón used derogatory terms for gay people and criticized some parts of the LGBTQ+ movement. She also made offensive comments about Muslims’ culture and suggested Islam should be banned.
Among her inflammatory tweets, she called for the expulsion of the Moroccan Spanish community, saying, “How many times must history expel the Moors from Spain? We still haven’t realized what this clash of civilizations means, which constantly attacks individual freedom and coherence. It’s not racism; it’s Islam.”