‘SNL’s’ Bowen Yang Sounds Off on Oscars ‘Troll’ Karla Sofía Gascón

Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang revealed his thoughts on the controversy over Best Actress Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón’s racist tweets, calling the Emilia Pérez star a “troll.”

“Anyone can be a troll and any troll can be an Oscar nominee,” Yang said on the latest episode of his podcast Las Culturistas with co-host Matt Rogers. Gascón, the first openly trans performer nominated for Best Actress, is facing an ice-out from Netflix, as the streamer scrambles to contain the fallout from racist posts that resurfaced on her X account.

Since the tweets emerged with Gascón’s offensive takes on Muslims, George Floyd, and even her co-star Selena Gomez, the film’s Oscar campaign is undergoing changes to omit and obscure the star’s role in the film—her co-stars are being asked to answer for Gascón’s words.

While Gomez has remained silent on the controversy so far, Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Zoe Saldaña called it a “setback” as she condemned “any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.” Netflix is reportedly treading carefully to keep Gascón’s scandal from jeopardizing the film’s other 12 Oscar noms, including Saldaña’s. Yang was particularly close to this year’s Oscars, as he and Rachel Sennott announced the Academy’s picks last month, following its postponement due to the California wildfires.

“It would be a shame” if Sadaña doesn’t win the award because of Gascón, Yang said Wednesday on Las Culturistas. “It’s just a shame that one person can really f--- up a whole movie’s campaign,” he continued. Instead of allowing Netflix to guide her steps in addressing the controversy, Gascón sat for interviews in which she denied being a “racist” and pointed fingers at others, in moves Yang said have only made matters worst for the film’s Oscars chances.

“Karla Sofía Gascón, why did you—no one on the movie or at Netflix told her to do this interview,” Yang continued. “We’ve really never seen anything quite like this,” he also said. “If there’s a pill that can turn off that part of your brain, that thing that makes you want to tweet something insane, let’s invent it.”