Karla Sofia Gascón, the star of Emilia Perez, has clarified her comments after accusing the social media team behind fellow Oscar contender I’m Still Here of undermining her.
Last week, Emilia Perez set a record for the most Oscar nominations for an international film and saw Gascón become the first openly trans actor to be recognised in an acting category by the Academy.
The Netflix musical has dominated awards season but it was joined in the Best Picture category with another foreign language film. Brazil’s I’m Still Here was nominated for three awards including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film and Best Actress for Fernanda Torres.
However, Gascón has since claimed that the social media team behind the Brazilian film are working with Torres to “tear me and Emilia Perez down”.
In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper, Folha de S Paulo, Gascón said: “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 Perez down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.”
In a statement since given to Variety, Gascón has clarified her comments stating that what she said did not extend to those “directly associated” with Torres, but instead was aimed 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,” she added. “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.”
Gascón went on to call Torres a “wonderful woman and an amazing actress who deserves all the recognition in the world,” but admitted that she had not yet seen I’m Still Here.
The 52-year-old concluded: “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.”
Earlier this month, Torres won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama.
