Karla Sofía Gascón Deletes X Account, Says ‘I Am Not Perfect’

ABLUpdated 3 weeks Ago3 Mins read20

Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón deleted her X/Twitter account at the request of her family, she said in a second statement made to The Hollywood Reporter on January 31. In it, she elaborates on the apology she made on the day prior for racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic posts she made on the now-deleted account. “I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore,” she writes, saying she has received death threats.

In her original statement shared with Vulture, Gascón wrote: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”

Her latest statement takes a more defensive tone while addressing her offensive tweets. She writes, originally in Spanish and translated by THR to English, “I have always used my social media as a diary, reflections, or notes, to later create stories or characters, not as something that would be scrutinized down to the last of its 140 characters, since sometimes I, myself, am not even aware of having written something negative.” She continues, “I have defended each and every one of the minorities in this world and supported freedom of religion,” a claim that goes against several posts in question, like one in 2020 in which she wrote (originally in Spanish) “Until we ban religions that go against European values and violate human rights, such as Islam, under the protection of freedom of worship, we will not end part of the huge problem we face.”

Gascón’s bigoted posting history was brought to the fore of public awareness on January 30 by writer Sarah Hagi, who resurfaced the tweets via screenshots and wrote, “this is all from the star of a movie that is campaigning on its progressive values, you really gotta laugh.” In one tweet, Gascón refers to the entire religion of Islam as “a hotbed for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.” In others, she fixates on how Muslim women dress.

Other tweets from Gascón include her criticism of the 2021 Oscars and George Floyd protests. “More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M,” Gascón wrote in one tweet, as noted by Variety. “Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala.” On George Floyd, Gascón wrote in a thread: “I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins. They’re all wrong.”

In her latest statement, Gascón attributes the above tweets to “ignorance or pure mistake,” apologizing to anyone who has taken offense. “I am a human being who also made, makes, and will make mistakes from which I will learn. I am not perfect. Taking my words out of context or manipulating them to hurt me is something I am not responsible for.”

Gascón says she “cannot be responding to every single thing you bring up to try to sink me. But if you want, you can continue attacking me as if I were responsible for hunger and wars in the world. I apologize again if I have ever offended anyone with my words in my life.

“I am only Karla Sofía Gascón, an actress who has reached where very few have thanks to her effort and work, without stealing or harming anyone in this world, just trying to get them to let me live in peace, love, and respect, something that seems to bother a lot of people in this world,” she continues.

Gascón writes that she hopes to have an opportunity to “give a more extensive explanation” at some point, and suggests that “there is something very dark” behind the backlash. She writes, in quotations, “The more you try to sink me, the stronger it will make me. The greater the victory will be,” and closes off with a Buddhist phrase, “NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO,” meaning, “Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra.” Gascón practices Buddhism.