Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón won’t attend Critics Choice Awards amid controversy over tweets | Hollywood

Karla Sofia Gascon, the lead star of Emilia Perez, made history as the first transgender actress to get an Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category. The film, which has won a slew of awards in the last few months, has faced an unprecedented setback ahead of a number of award ceremonies, because of the lead star’s disparaging comments on a number of marginalized communities. (Also read: Emilia Perez star Karla Sofia Gascon tears up, pleads ‘not a racist’ amid backlash over controversial tweets)

Emilia Perez awards run in jeopardy

After her old tweets went viral, the actor went on to deactivate her X account. She also did an hour-long interview with CNN es Espanol as she cried and addressed her controversial social media history. The Hollywood Reporter has now reported that this media coverage was undertaken by Karla without coordination with Netflix, which owns Emilia Pérez’s distribution rights.

The report also added that the actor will not be attending the Critics Choice Awards or any other award ceremonies that will be taking place in LA. The Critics Choice Awards will take place on February 7, where the film has got 10 nods, including one for Karla. Then there are the Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards the very next day, both of which have nominated Emilia Perez in their categories.

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Moreover, Karla has been removed from all promotional awards campaign materials for the awards. The attention is now being shifted to her co-star Zoe Saldana, who is a frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actress category.

In the film, she plays Emilia, a feared drug cartel lord who seeks the help of Zoe Saldaña’s Rita, a lawyer, to fake her death and undergo gender-affirming surgery. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year and won her the Best Actress prize, shared jointly with her co-stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe.