Zoe Saldaña says she’s taking ‘time to process’ ‘Emilia Pérez’ costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s comments

Zoe Saldaña isn’t letting the controversy surrounding her “Emilia Pérez” costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive social media comments take the joy out of her experience being recognized in the Oscar race, but she says she still has a lot to process about it.

Zoe Saldaña isn’t letting the controversy surrounding her “Emilia Pérez” costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive social media comments take the joy out of her experience as an Oscar nominee, but she says she still has a lot to process about it. Saldaña earned her first-ever Academy Award nomination in the best supporting actress category for Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez,” which became this year’s most-nominated film after it nabbed 13 nominations, including nods for best picture and lead actress Gascón. But when journalist Sarah Hagi shared screenshots of Gascón’s old social media posts that were Islamophobic and critical of George Floyd, the discourse surrounding the film shifted, something that Saldaña – who is one of this year’s Oscars front-runners in her respective category – has had to grapple with both publicly and privately. “I’m very sad. I’m also disappointed,” Saldaña said about Gascón’s comments on Thursday’s episode of Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, adding that she “can’t speak for other people’s actions.” Saldaña said that based on her own experience filming the movie, she knows the cast, crew and filmmakers were “all about inclusivity and collaboration and equality of all sorts, and so it’s sad that we are here.” “I’m taking it day by day and that joy is starting to kind of come back again,” she said, after noting that she’s “amazed” by the support she’s gotten amid the controversy. She later added that she is “taking my time to process,” and that she feels this isn’t “something that we have to figure out immediately.”