Adele ‘body-shamed’ by trans Oscar nominee amid controversial tweets row as Emilia Perez star takes drastic action
Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón faces fresh controversy after tweets body-shaming Adele and criticising co-star Selena Gomez resurfaced, leading to her deactivation of social media accounts.
The Emilia Pérez star, who made history as the first transgender actress nominated for an Academy Award, has issued multiple apologies amidst growing backlash – and has even now taken the drastic action to deactivate her social media accounts.
The latest revelations include a 2020 post mocking Adele’s arms after her weight loss, and a 2022 tweet calling Gomez a “rich rat”.
Co-star Zoe Saldaña has now distanced herself from Gascón’s comments during a London Q&A, expressing sadness over the situation.
In the 2020 post about Adele, Gascón wrote: “COVID passed, and she went overboard with the sleeves, or she went under the knife and they didn’t remove the skin from her arms @Adele.”
The tweet targeting Gomez emerged from 2022, where Gascón commented on a photo of Gomez and Hailey Bieber at the Academy Museum Gala.
“She’s a rich rat who plays the poor bastard whenever she can and will never stop bothering her ex-boyfriend and his wife,” wrote Gascón, despite reportedly knowing she would soon work with Gomez on Emilia Pérez.
Fans have called for the Academy to “cancel her nomination” in response to the posts.
Gascón initially apologised on Thursday, stating: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt.”
Hours later, she announced her departure from X, citing “death threats” and “harassment to the point of exhaustion”.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, she claimed there was a “campaign of hate and misinformation” affecting her family.
The actress defended her social media use as “a diary” for creating stories and characters, saying she never expected her posts to be “scrutinised down to the last of its 140 characters”.
During a London Q&A, Saldaña spoke out against her co-star’s controversial posts.
“I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad. 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 said.
She emphasised that her experience filming Emilia Pérez had been about “inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity”.
Despite the controversy, Saldaña urged continued support for the film, noting its “powerful” message for marginalised communities.
The controversy began when Muslim writer Sarah Hagi uncovered Gascón’s earlier posts about Islam and George Floyd.
In one 2020 post, she wrote about Muslim women at her daughter’s school: “Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”
Another tweet called George Floyd a “drug addict swindler” following his death in 2020.
Gascón also criticised the 2021 Oscars ceremony, writing: “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.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Council called the posts “hurtful, offensive, and shocking”.
In a new Instagram statement posted Friday evening, Gascón claimed “THEY ALREADY WON” whilst defending herself against racism allegations.
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The actress wrote: “Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a racist” and referenced having a Muslim person among “the most important people in my current life”.
She suggested her posts had been taken out of context, writing: “They have created posts as if it were me insulting even my colleagues. Things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality”.
The statement appeared alongside a Nichiren Buddhist symbol with the text: “As with ‘Emilia Pérez’: We can all do better. Me too”.
Gascón made history last week as the first openly transgender actor to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Her film Emilia Pérez received 13 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jacques Audiard.
In the film, Gascón plays a cartel leader who enlists lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Saldaña) to help fake her death so she can transition and live authentically.
The actress completed her own gender transition in 2018 after years of acting in Mexican telenovelas.
She previously won Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival, sharing the honour with co-stars Saldaña, Gomez and Adriana Paz.