“Emilia Pérez” Star Karla Sofía Gascón Says She’s ‘Not a Racist’ in Tearful Interview

Karla Sofía Gascón insisted that she's "not a racist" in a candid TV interview about her resurfaced social media posts.

The Oscar nominee, 52, sat down with CNN en Español for an hour-long conversation with anchor Juan Carlos Arciniegas, which aired on Sunday, Feb. 2. She addressed the allegations of racism and Islamophobia, as well as her supposed tweet against her Emilia Pérez costar Selena Gomez.

Gascón grew visibly emotional during the interview.

When the actress was asked if she would renounce her Oscar nomination, which marks the first time a transgender woman has been nominated for Best Actress at the awards show, she said, "I cannot renounce a nomination because what I have done is a job and what is being valued is my acting work," per a translation by The Hollywood Reporter.

Gascón continued, per CNN, "I cannot step down from an Oscar nomination because I have not committed any crime nor have I harmed anyone. I am neither racist nor anything that all these people have tried to make others believe I am."

The Netflix star also addressed her since-deleted X posts about the 2020 murder of George Floyd that brought viral attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the series of posts, Gascón called Floyd "a drug addict and a hustler" and said "his death has served to highlight once again that there are those who still consider Black people to be monkeys without rights and those who consider the police to be murderers. All wrong," per THR.

Explaining the posts to CNN, Gascón reportedly said her words were misconstrued and that she was trying to make a point about Floyd's newfound support. "He was a person who had been in a very difficult situation in his life and no one had helped him, and suddenly he becomes a symbol of a cause and everyone loved him," she explained.

"But for someone to think that … I have ever insulted a person because of their skin color, I do not allow that to anyone, to anyone," the actress added.

Related: Emilia Pérez Oscar Nominee Karla Sofía Gascón Deletes Her X/Twitter Account After Apologizing for Controversial Posts

In regards to her alleged Islamophobic posts, which were uncovered by reporter Sarah Hagi, Gascón told CNN that she had a relationship with a Muslim woman "whom I adore, whom I love and who has taught me so much about respect for people." She also claimed that she was expressing her opposition to radical Islam.

Ultimately, the actress claimed she has never caused harm to anyone. "What have I done in my life? What have I done? I haven’t killed a single fly," she said in the CNN interview, according to a translation from Deadline and THR. "When I have a spider in my house I put a little glass on it so as not to kill it and take it out to the street."

Gascón also addressed the controversial tweet in which she reportedly called Gomez a "rich rat" amid her rumored feud with Hailey Bieber, refuting its existence.

"It’s not mine, of course," Gascón claimed, per CNN. "I have never said anything about my colleague I would never refer to her that way."

Furthermore, she claimed that the allegedly fake social media post attributed to her may have been purposefully trying to damage her Oscar campaign amid the ongoing voting period.

The actress alleged that people "have dedicated themselves to searching, to put together all the things that I had said at a time that I had written — most of which are false … most of them I don’t even recognize that I wrote them. And they put them all together and so it seems that she is a very bad person and we remove her just when we can do the most damage, right in the voting period."

Related: Karla Sofía Gascón Seemingly Speaks Out About Resurfaced Selena Gomez Criticism: 'We Can All Do Better'

However, Gascón also said, "I don’t give a damn about awards."

"What I do care about is the people that I represent, because of what I represent in this world," she continued to CNN. "We can all change and be better people in this world."

Deadline reported that Gascón's interview with CNN en Español was "unauthorized."

On Friday, Jan. 31, the actress shared a statement to THR, in which she said she has received death threats and harassment due to the offensive social media posts.

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"I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect me and my family, so at their request I am closing my account on X,' she said in the statement. "I have been threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion. I have a wonderful daughter to protect, whom I love madly and who supports me in everything."

Her Emilia Pérez costar Zoe Saldaña was recently asked about the controversy during a London Q&A and said, "I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad," per THR.

"It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group," Saldaña said. "I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is a part, of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural and gender equity. And it just saddens me."

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