Trans ‘Emilia Pérez’ Star’s Racist Tweet Scandal Just Blew Open the Oscar Race

Emilia Pérez is easily one of the worst movies I’ve suffered through this year, so its award-season success has been absolutely baffling.

With 13 nods, it is the most nominated film at this year’s Oscars, a count that ties Emilia Pérez with classics like Gone With the Wind, From Here to Eternity, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Forrest Gump, and Chicago. It’s one of the most egregious cases of “one of these things is not like the others” that I’ve ever seen, as if Gigli had gotten the same amount of Oscar nominations as Titanic.

The film is a 130-minute musical mostly in Spanish, but by a French director and screenwriter, about a Mexican cartel leader who transitions from man to woman and enlists a lawyer to keep her safe during the process. There is no logical reason why this is a musical, a confusion exacerbated by the fact that not a single song is what an objective person would call “good,” no one in the cast is capable of carrying a tune, and each number is lit with such muddy lighting that you can barely see what’s going on.

The one forgiving element of Emilia Pérez is its historic status. Its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, is the first openly trans performer to be nominated for an acting Oscar. And to Gascón’s credit, even Emilia Pérez’s most vocal haters—aka, me—temper their vitriol with the caveat, “But it’s not the actors’ faults. That lead woman, Karla, is very good.”

I’m very grateful for Gascón today. No one has to try to sink Emilia Pérez’s Oscar campaign anymore. She’s taken care of doing that all on her own.

Back-to-back controversies have all but ensured that a voter would need to be out of their damn mind to cast a vote for this movie.

First, the lesser of the two scandals, Gascón was caught gossiping about her fellow nominee Fernanda Torres, the Golden Globe winner from the Brazilian film I’m Still Here, accusing the actress’ team of attacking her on social media. Beyond pettiness, Gascón’s words had to be investigated to see if they were in violation of Academy rules that would require rescinding her nomination.

But then came the big one. Past tweets resurfaced that could best be described as Gascón waking up each day and playing her own version of Whack-a-Mole with which marginalized community she was going to trash in a new post. They are, again, speaking objectively, shockingly bigoted. The posts shared her controversial views about Muslim people, George Floyd, and, ironically, diversity at the Oscars. I think that last one may be what made Netflix’s PR team’s heads finally explode.

Gascón has apologized, and her X account is now deactivated. I’d say, however, that the damage is already done. And the effect that this will have on this year’s Oscars can’t be undersold. It doesn’t just diminish Emilia Pérez’s awards chances; it likely will impact the ceremony being planned for March 2 itself.

Micro controversies have hit several of the top competitors for Best Picture.

The Brutalist caught flak for its use of AI, both in perfecting star Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent and to help in the design of the architect character’s buildings. It, frankly, is overblown. The AI designs were used for inspiration only and, if you think that The Brutalist is the only movie using technology to sweeten actors’ performers, you’re being very naive; hilariously, not only have other Best Picture nominees done similar things, the same company The Brutalist used also worked on—you guessed it—Emilia Pérez.

Anora, the unhinged Cinderella story of a sex worker who impulsively marries a Russian heir, sparked its own cycle of discourse when Best Actress nominee Mikey Madison revealed that the film didn’t employ an intimacy coordinator to consult on its many sex and nude scenes. The blowback passed quickly on this one, but in a tight Best Picture race, any drama isn’t great.

With Emilia Pérez already battling a growing chorus of “how in the living hell is this an Oscar movie?” discussion once one of its most cringe-inducing moments—a song about vaginoplasty—went viral, Gascón’s evolution from history-maker to award-season villain killed any remaining goodwill the film had.

With three leading contenders all facing a range of controversies, the Best Picture race has blown wide open in a way that’s actually kind of exciting—though we hesitate to give credit to racist tweets for livening things up.

It’s become more and more typical for each Oscar category to be essentially set in stone by the time the ceremony happens. For there to be uncertainty heading into voting, which begins Feb. 11, is quite fun. I can imagine the campaign team behind Conclave sitting in a dark room in their robes and pope hats, devilishly drumming their fingers together to celebrate the chaos they’ve sewed. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised, at this point, if Wicked scores the rare populist movie win.

Another question is what happens to the ceremony itself. Producers have already revealed plans to revive its popular, very touching gimmick of having five previous Oscar winners deliver tributes to each acting nominee before the winner is announced. At this juncture, after seeing the content of those tweets, who is going to agree to earnestly sing the praises of Gascón?

What was likely going to be one of the most profound moments of the telecast is now completely upended. It would be embarrassing for the Academy and producers to have to announce they’ve altered this plan, for many reasons including it would mean admitting that campaign politics and controversies influenced that decision.

It’s a bum note for Emilia Pérez at the most important moment of the awards cycle. But having seen the movie, bum notes are kind of its thing.

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by editor Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.