Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón to attend Oscars, report says, despite tweet controversy

Emilia Pérez lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón is planning on attending the 2025 Oscars, Variety reported on Monday, despite the backlash the Oscar-nominated trans actor is facing for her old posts on social media that denigrated Islam and that called George Floyd "a drug addict and a hustler."

Gascón, who is nominated for best actress, will be in the audience on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with sources telling Variety that Netflix will pay for Gascón's expenses as she prepares to travel to Los Angeles for the ceremony.

Details about her plans are still being finalized, including whether she will walk the red carpet, stop for interviews or sit near her co-stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez and director Jacques Audiard, the Variety report added.

The report also said that Gascón is planning to attend the César Awards in Paris ahead of the Oscars, on Feb. 28.

Netflix and representatives for Gascón did not immediately respond to CBC News's requests for comment.

Netflix's Emilia Pérez leads the Oscars race this year with 13 nominations, but star Karla Sofía Gascón had been removed from the film's Academy Award campaign after her past offensive comments.

Gascón made history as the first transgender performer to be nominated for the Oscar for best actress, helping make Emilia Pérez the most nominated film going into next month's awards show, with Netflix hoping that the controversy wouldn't derail the film's Oscar chances.

In late January, journalist Sarah Hagi captured old posts on X by Gascón disparaging Muslims, George Floyd and China. After an uproar, Gascón apologized in a statement provided by Netflix.

Some of the posts went as far back as 2016, which took aim at Muslims' dress, language and culture in her native Spain. She also suggested that Islam be banned.

And less than a month after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, Gascón offered her assessment of Floyd — whose death prompted widespread reckoning with police brutality and racism — as a drug addict who "very few people ever cared" for.

Gascón's X account was subsequently deactivated.

Gascón was a regular in Mexican telenovelas before transitioning in 2018. In Emilia Pérez, she plays both a menacing cartel kingpin and the woman who emerges after the kingpin fakes his own death. Years later, her character contacts the lawyer who facilitated her transition (Zoe Saldaña) to help her reunite with her wife (Selena Gomez) and their children.

Old tweets have come back to haunt celebrities before, including James Gunn, Trevor Noah and Blake Shelton. Each has rebounded, with Gunn getting rehired to direct the third Guardians of the Galaxy film for Marvel and the upcoming Superman reboot; Noah hosted this year's Grammy Awards and Shelton was for years a coach on NBC's The Voice.