Karla Sofía Gascón Reflects on Tumultuous Oscars Season: “The Pain Has Been So Overwhelming That I Contemplated the Unthinkable”
Less than a week after the 2025 Oscars, Emilia Pérez star and best actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón is reflecting on her experience as part of Netflix’s awards campaign for the genre-bending musical.
Though Emilia Pérez scored a leading 13 Oscar nominations, it won only two awards (for best song, “El Mal,” and best supporting actress, Zoe Salda?a) after past, controversial tweets by Gascón were resurfaced online in the days after nominations were announced.
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The discovery led to Gascón deactivating her X (formerly Twitter) account and repeatedly apologizing before she was phased out of Netflix’s Oscars campaign for the film, but she attended the 2025 Oscars as a nominee and was acknowledged by host Conan O’Brien and spotted catching up with co-star Selena Gomez.
As for her experience at the Oscars, Gascón, who joked about O’Brien asking her to refer to him as Jimmy Kimmel in a social media post shortly after the event, tells The Hollywood Reporter that she, “loved the ceremony, honestly, I found it very enjoyable.”
“I would have liked to experience it more normally, from the happiness of being nominated, of celebrating, as I am now, full of love, a person who puts her soul and her being into her work and who gives herself to others,” she adds. “I am very grateful to return and for how my colleagues and the professionals of the Hollywood industry received me. I am grateful to the academy, to Netflix and to the production.”
Now, Gascon, who is “working on several projects,” she tells THR, and said early last month that she was stepping away from the spotlight in order to allow the film to shine, is opening up about her time representing Emilia Pérez.
She once again apologizes “to all I have offended at any point in my life and throughout my journey” and asks for “forgiveness” and commits to “continuing to learn and listen so as not to make the same mistakes in the future.”
And she says “hurtful things” she said and did came “from fear, from my own ignorance, from my own pain.”
But Gascón says she’s hoping to use her experience, which included a number of dark moments to “open an honest discussion and reflection on mental health.”
“In this last episode, the most talked about and most exposed of my life, several fake accounts were created in my name to add to the pain and confusion,” she says of the controversy around her tweets, some of which she has said were misrepresented and fabricated. “Absurd and even delirious accusations were thrown at me, which deeply hurt my spirit. Things escalated to a point, and so quickly, that I couldn’t even breathe.”
Gascón says during the controversy, which she calls an “unexpected, devastating storm,” there were times “when the pain has been so overwhelming that I contemplated the unthinkable.”
“I harbored darker thoughts than those I considered in some of my previous, no less intimate and personal struggles,” Gascón says, without specifically revealing what these “darker thoughts” and “unthinkable” things were. “And I asked myself: if I, with all my strength and preparedness to deal with rage and rejection, am on the edge, what would have become of someone with fewer emotional resources to resist this onslaught? Somehow, I made it. Others would not have survived this brutal winter I am about to wrap up.”
She goes on to talk about what she’s learned from that experience.
“Now that the storm is calming down a bit, and the worst has passed (or so I hope), I start seeing clearly what I have learned. I’ve learned that hatred, like fire, cannot be put down with more hatred,” she says. “Offenses cannot be erased with more offenses, and mistakes cannot clean up other mistakes, especially when lies and falseness proliferate all around and when all they send back to me is pure rage, blatant bullying, vexation, scorn and even death threats.”
She goes on to say, “Fortunately, I have kept my one inch of sanity to see the light at the end of this tunnel of hate and understand that I must be and do better, and correct my past faults, without engaging in more darkness. Otherwise, if I play their game, and reciprocate and amplify all that hate others project on me, I will get lost; I will never move forward, and I won’t be able to keep helping others still stuck in the storm.”
Gascón, who became the first openly trans woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, recalls how she has spent years trying to bring visibility to “a historically overlooked group—a group that is part of my identity and my own reality.”
“I have been defending and reflecting the life of a trans woman trapped in the worst possible place: the body of a criminal immersed in an extreme patriarchy,” Gascón says.
She adds that she’ll continue to advocate for “the rights of the most disadvantaged.”
“You will always find me on the opposite side of fanaticism, imposition, patriarchy, fascism, dictatorships, terror, abuse and irrationality,” she says. “I do not bind myself to any political flag; I only try to be a human being in constant evolution, with successes and failures, but with an unbreakable will to learn, listen, admit mistakes, apologize and forgive others as I forgive myself for the unnecessary pain I have caused.”
Read Gascón’s full statement below.
Sometimes, we put on a shield to protect ourselves, so that harm does not reach our hearts, our skin, or our souls. I have my own armor too, like anyone else. It’s not pretty, but it has saved my life a couple of times.The problem is, precisely, that shields can be cold and hard on the outside and can also hurt those around you. That is what happened to me, to those who love me, and to those who believed in me.
Lately, as I have been the target of harmful words, I have also said hurtful things throughout my life that have caused others to feel offended—things done and said from fear, from my own ignorance, from my own pain, from the outside of that cold, upsetting shield.
With no excuse, and without any intention to justify any of my past actions, I apologize to all I have offended at any point in my life and throughout my journey. I humbly ask for their forgiveness and, to honor their kindness and understanding, I promise I will commit to continuing to learn and listen, so as not to make the same mistakes in the future.
For the last few years of my life, I went out into the world and gave my best to bring visibility to a historically overlooked group—a group that is part of my identity and my own reality. I have been defending and reflecting the life of a trans woman trapped in the worst possible place: the body of a criminal immersed in an extreme patriarchy. While doing so, my purpose was always to do it with as much dignity as possible, showing a story of struggle and resistance that deserved to be told. I poured my soul, my life, and my essence into this project, working side by side with great Mexican friends who helped me convey a message of hope: we can all be better people, no matter our starting point or our beginnings in this quest called life.
Mexico holds an indelible place in my heart. In this magnetic and amazing country, I was allowed to establish my career as an actor, and I have received friendship, affection, and human warmth I will never forget. Since the day my dear Julián Pastor, a legendary film director, opened his doors to me, my love for this land and its people became eternal.
My commitment to stand for Mexico, all Mexicans, and for the rights of the most disadvantaged remains strong. You will always find me on the opposite side of fanaticism, imposition, patriarchy, fascism, dictatorships, terror, abuse, and irrationality. I do not bind myself to any political flag; I only try to be a human being in constant evolution, with successes and failures, but with an unbreakable will to learn, listen, admit mistakes, apologize, and forgive others as I forgive myself for the unnecessary pain I have caused.
Because of my daughter, and for future generations, I want to open an honest discussion and reflection on mental health. Throughout different stages of my life, I have gone through dark moments—episodes in which despair led me to unexpected places. In this last episode, the most talked about and most exposed of my life, several fake accounts were created in my name to add to the pain and confusion. Absurd and even delirious accusations were thrown at me, which deeply hurt my spirit. Things escalated to a point, and so quickly, that I couldn’t even breathe.
Amid this unexpected, devastating storm, there have been moments when the pain has been so overwhelming that I contemplated the unthinkable. I harbored darker thoughts than those I considered in some of my previous, no less intimate and personal struggles. And I asked myself: if I, with all my strength and preparedness to deal with rage and rejection, am on the edge, what would have become of someone with fewer emotional resources to resist this onslaught? Somehow, I made it. Others would not have survived this brutal winter I am about to wrap up.
Now that the storm is calming down a bit, and the worst has passed (or so I hope), I start seeing clearly what I have learned. I’ve learned that hatred, like fire, cannot be put down with more hatred. Offenses cannot be erased with more offenses, and mistakes cannot clean up other mistakes, especially when lies and falseness proliferate all around and when all they send back to me is pure rage, blatant bullying, vexation, scorn, and even death threats.
Fortunately, I have kept my one inch of sanity to see the light at the end of this tunnel of hate and understand that I must be and do better, and correct my past faults, without engaging in more darkness. Otherwise, if I play their game, and reciprocate and amplify all that hate others project on me, I will get lost; I will never move forward, and I won’t be able to keep helping others still stuck in the storm.
The responsibility to care for ourselves as a society lies with each one of us. As Martin Luther King Jr said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Therefore, if there is something that must guide us in these difficult days, it is empathy with those, like me, who have walked on the edge most of our lives, who believed we were a mistake, and then, we made mistakes. As Albert Camus stated, “there is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide,” because it confronts us with the very meaning of existence. I am not quoting these words to insinuate anything or point at myself, but for those others who would not have been able to endure what I just have endured.
Only through understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and empathy can we build a world where difference is not synonymous with condemnation, but with richness. A world where we can learn and grow as we go. A world where we can all put our shields aside and be ourselves.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
***
Additional reporting by Julian Sancton
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