Karla Sofía Gascón Apologizes, Vows to Stay Silent for Sake of ‘Emilia Pérez’ Cast

Karla Sofia Gascón, who plays the title character in the Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez, has apologized after her past offensive posts about Muslims and the killing of George Floyd resurfaced last week.

“Following Jacques interview that I understand, I decided, for the film, for Jacques, for the cast, for the incredible crew who deserves it, for the beautiful adventure we all had together, to let the work talk for itself, hoping my silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful ode to love and difference,” Gascón wrote on Instagram on Thursday evening, alongside a post of her and her Emilia Pérez crew. She added, “I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt along the way.”

The day before, the film’s director Jacques Audiard shared that he had not spoken to Gascón since her controversial posts about Muslims and the killing of George Floyd went viral last week. During an interview with Deadline, Audiard called the actress’ past tweets “inexcusable” and “hateful,” and accused Gascón of “playing the victim.”

“I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to,” said the director. “She is in a self-destructive approach that I can’t interfere in, and I really don’t understand why she’s continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why? I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand about this too is why she’s harming people who were very close to her.” He continued, “I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions.”

Earlier on Thursday, Gascón’s co-star, Zoe Saldaña told Variety that she was “disappointed” by Gascón’s actions. “I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” said Saldaña.

Over the weekend, Gascón appeared on CNN En Español for an interview and claimed she had been subject to “cancel culture.” Multiple outlets confirmed that Netflix was not involved nor aware that the actress was doing the CNN interview.

When speaking to Deadline, Audiard said that he was going to continue to promote Emilia Pérez, but like Saldaña, acknowledged “there’s something sad about it.” He said, “There’s a sadness that we have to get past, if things aren’t clear, then we need to shed light on them and we’re going to have to spend time on continuing to really defend this film.”