Emilia Pérez's Karla Sofía Gascón will attend Oscars on Netflix's dime

Despite the avalanche of bad press, tweets, and apologies, Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón will attend the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday

By Matt Schimkowitz | February 24, 2025 | 6:49pm

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

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Emilia Pérez's Karla Sofía Gascón will attend Oscars on Netflix's dime

Few Oscar hopefuls burn out as spectacularly as Emilia Pérez. This French musical about a trans cartel leader is not having the awards season Netflix expected. Cynically, one could assume why Netflix put all its chips on Emilia Pérez. A musical starring a transgender woman could certainly help bring back some of the goodwill the company lost by platforming so many anti-trans comics over the last few years. But even the trans community has largely rejected the film—to say nothing of its controversial portrayal of Mexican culture. But a regressive or even offensive worldview has never prevented someone from collecting an Oscar before. What really cooked this one was Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweets, which walked several third rails, including George Floyd, the Academy’s diversity initiatives, Islam, and her co-star Selena Gomez. Now, Gascón’s once-historic Oscar coronation has stained the entire season, and the film’s 13 nominations (one nomination shy of the most ever) feel like a waste. Still, while it seems unlikely that she’ll win—though not impossible—Gascón will face the music and attend the ceremony anyway, and Netflix will pay for it.

Per Variety, Gascón plans to attend the Oscars this Sunday and will send the bill to Netflix. It’s unclear if she’ll walk the red carpet or sit with her co-stars Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, who has a good shot of picking up an Oscar following yesterday’s SAG awards. Either way, it’s an upgrade from how Netflix viewed the star earlier this month.

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“I’m not sure how I feel, but I’m grateful to be back,” Gascón told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m grateful to all those who’ve believed in me — to Netflix, the production company and my colleagues. We can close this beautiful and difficult path that began three years ago.”

Gascón has become a ghost of the season—her name a jump scare among the roll call of nominees. Even at the SAG awards, her name only elicited a polite smattering of applause. When Saldaña accepted her SAG for Best Supporting Actress, she didn’t mention her co-star, the woman whose performance she won for supporting. As noted by HuffPost, Gascón barely appeared in a supercut designed to celebrate, focusing primarily on Saldaña and Gomez. Only director Jacques Audiard has mentioned her, thanking her in an acceptance speech at last week’s BAFTAs. We’ll see what happens on Sunday, but we’d hate to bet against someone losing out on a prestigious honor due to some offensive tweets. Win or lose, she’ll probably end up working for DOGE by the end of the week.