Oscar nominee’s past tweets with controversial views about Muslims, George Floyd, and diversity at the Oscars caused severe backlash. “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón said in a statement to Variety. “As someone in a marginalised 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.”.

Gascón recently made history when she became the first-ever openly trans individual nominated for an Academy Award in any acting category. On Thursday, journalist Sarah Hagi drew attention to a series of posts made on X, formerly Twitter, from Gascón’s account made between 2020 and 2021. One post from November 2020 said: “I’m sorry, Is it just my impression or is there more muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”.

Gascón also posted a string of tweets about George Floyd in the days after he was killed by a police officer in which she described him as “a drug addict swindler”. In 2021, Nomadland won best picture at the Oscars, while Youn Yuh Jung from Minari and Daniel Kaluuya from Judas and the Black Messiah won best supporting actor in their respective categories. The tweets have since been deleted. The Independent has reached out to Gascón’s representatives for comment.

In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper, Folha de S Paulo, Gascón said: “What I don’t like are social media teams – people who work with these people – trying to diminish our work, like me and my movie, because that doesn’t lead anywhere. “You don’t need to tear down someone’s work to highlight another’s. I have never, at any point, said anything bad about Fernanda Torres or her movie. However, there are people working with Fernanda Torres tearing me and Emilia Perez down. That speaks more about their movie than mine.”.

In a statement since given to Variety, Gascón has clarified her comments stating that what she said did not extend to those “directly associated” with Torres, but instead was aimed toward “toxicity and violent hate speech on social media”. “I am an enormous fan of Fernanda Torres and it has been wonderful getting to know her the past few months,” she added. “In my recent comments, I was referencing the toxicity and violent hate speech on social media that I sadly continue to experience. Fernanda has been a wonderful ally, and no one directly associated with her has been anything but supportive and hugely generous.”.