Zoe Saldaña has responded to the backlash against her Emilia Pérez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón, stating that she is “still processing” everything but adding that she does not support the sentiments that have come out in Gascón’s old social media posts. “I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group,” says Saldaña during a Q&A in London on Friday.
Gascón, a first-time Oscar nominee for best actress and the first openly trans actress to ever be nominated in the category, came under fire this week when a series of her old social media posts on X resurfaced in screen shots posted by writer and podcaster Sarah Hagi. The posts, mostly from 2020 and 2021, contain a series of derogatory remarks about Muslim people, the Arab community, and Islam. More of Gascón’s posts began to circulate that reportedly commented on the 2020 murder of George Floyd. “I truly believed 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,” read the post, which was translated from Spanish via Google Translate.
She later posted several apologies before deleting her X account on Friday. “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,” she wrote. “I have been threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion.”
This scandal comes on the heels of Emilia Pérez’s 13 Oscar nominations, including acting nominations for both her and Saldaña. In the Netflix film, Gascón stars as a cartel boss who enlists a lawyer (Saldaña) to help her transition into a woman and live as her true self. It debuted at Cannes to a strong reception and an acting prize for the actors, and has been a critical hit since. At the Q&A in London, which Gascón did not attend, Saldaña went on to add: “I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is 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. It saddens me that we are having to face this setback right now.”
“But I’m happy that you’re all here and that you’re all still showing up for Emilia because the message that this film has is so powerful and the change that it can bring forward to communities that are marginalized day in and day out is important,” she added. “And all that I can attest is that all of us that came together to tell this story, we came together for love and for respect and curiosity, and we will continue to spread that message.”
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