Karla Sofía Gascón is Oscar-nominated for her work in Emilia Perez. She’s in the lead actress category, going head-to-head with Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Mikey Madison and Fernanda Torres. Mikey has, in my opinion, not waged the kind of Oscar campaign she should have, while Cynthia saved her PR blitz for the promotion of Wicked rather than the awards season. Demi is campaigning hard and many people believe that she’s the front-runner. Meanwhile, Fernanda Torres is still sort of introducing herself to American audiences (and mostly American Oscar voters), same as Karla Sofia. Torres’ campaign definitely took a hit when she had to come out this week and apologize for doing blackface on Brazilian television in 2008 (when she was in her 40s!!). Karla’s Oscar campaign is being hampered by the larger discourse about Emilia Perez and how offensive the film is to Mexicans AND the LGBTQ community AND Spanish-speakers AND everyone else, basically. Well, Karla recently blamed… Fernanda Torres and her social media team for their attacks on her and Emilia Perez. Karla then had to backtrack.

Karla Sofía Gascón, star of the Oscar-nominated film “Emilia Pérez,” has accused the social media team of fellow best actress nominee Fernanda Torres of attempting to undermine her work. In a Jan. 21 video interview with Folha de S. Paulo, a Brazilian daily newspaper, published Tuesday, Gascón praised Torres, the star of the Brazilian drama “I’m Still Here.”

In the edited clip, Gascón, speaking in Spanish, criticizes online campaigns, stating, “What I don’t like are social media teams — people who work with these people — trying to diminish our work, like me and my movie, because that doesn’t lead anywhere. You don’t need to tear down someone’s work to highlight another’s. I have never, at any point, said anything bad about Fernanda Torres or her movie. However, there are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and ‘Emilia Pérez’ down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.”

In a later statement given to Variety, Gascón clarified that her comments did not extend to those “directly associated” with Torres, but instead was intended toward “toxicity and violent hate speech on social media.”

“I am an enormous fan of Fernanda Torres and it has been wonderful getting to know her the past few months,” Gascón said in her statement. “In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience. Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”

She goes on to call Torres a “wonderful woman and an amazing actress who deserves all the recognition in the world.” However, she admits she has not yet seen “I’m Still Here.” After expressing her genuine happiness for Torres’ Golden Globe win, she adds, “This isn’t a competition. This is simply about people liking one’s work or not. If [Torres] wins [the Oscar], great. If I win, same.”

[From Variety]

It’s more than possible that Karla has been keeping better track of things and she knows where some of the negativity is coming from. It’s also more than possible that a Spanish actress (Karla) is falsely accusing a Brazilian actress and her team of something they have never done. I truly haven’t been keeping track of it, all I know is that there are so many larger conversations about Emilia Perez, and it seems bizarre to place this on Torres and the I’m Still Here team? Also: there was some talk that Karla’s original comments might have violated AMPAS rules, but Variety says that she didn’t.

Karla Sofia Gascón has violated the Academy’s Oscar rules by accusing nominee Fernanda Torres’ team of spreading hate against her and the cast of Emilia Perez during a Brazilian interview.

“Any public communication by anyone associated with an eligible film attempting to cast… pic.twitter.com/J0f9GU0EZu

— 21 (@21metgala) January 29, 2025

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.