In light of Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón tanking the film’s Oscar chances with her social media history, a new report suggests that Hollywood will now require any actor who finds themself nominated for a given industry award will be required to thoroughly scrub their online presence in order to avoid any future controversies.
As seen in the lead-up to the 2025 Oscars, while the tale of a Mexican cartel kingpin’s gender transition journey had previously been a favorite to sweep the awards ceremony – notably not due to its quality, but rather because so many mainstream critics had taken to obsessively praising it in order to virtue signal to their respective audiences – this outcome ultimately evaporated when the film’s critics delved into Gascón’s social media history.
In doing so, they unearthed a wide berth of controversial posts previously made by the transgender actress, their subject matter running the gamut from suggesting that George Floyd’s death was a case of straight-forward police abuse rather than having anything to do with racism, to criticizing the 2021 Academy Awards for looking more like an “Afro-Korean” film festival or a Black Lives Matter gathering, to calls for Western countries to outright ban the practice of Islam, to lashing out against the Chinese people for the COVID-19-related failings of their government.
And though Gascón, herself the first transgender individual nominated for a Best Actress award, would respond by deleting her Twitter account and going on a media apology tour – during which she pulled the ‘I can’t be racist, I acted with Zoë Saldaña‘ card, a hilariously bad move regardless of whether or not you personally support or disagree with her – her efforts ultimately proved for naught.
Not only did her social media history lead to her drawing widespread criticism from her fellow Emilia Pérez cast and crew members, but despite receiving 13 total nominations, the film only walked away with the awards for Best Original Song (‘El Mal’, as written by French musicians Clément Ducol and Camille with lyrics from director Jacques Audiard) and Best Supporting Actress (Saldaña).
Toi this end, with the dust now settled, it seems Hollywood at large is making moves to ensure that future projects do not find themselves embroiled in a similar ‘self-defeating awards controversy’.
According to an ‘Oscar’s after action report’ from Variety‘s Clayton Davis, “The Karla Sofía Gascón controversy will have lasting effects on the awards complex. Multiple studio and PR sources say that while social media scrubbing was once an afterthought, it will now be seen as an essential component of every campaign.”
“The lesson?” he added, “If you’re hoping to be an awards contender — whether it’s for the Oscars, the Emmys or the Tonys — it’s best to start scrubbing now, before journalists and online detectives unearth something you’d prefer remain hidden.”
While Hollywood’s efforts are understandable in a business sense, they will likely prove practically useless.
Given the nature of the internet, it’s likely that most celebrities have already had their worst posts – as well as those that could easily be taken out of context – archived, screenshotted, and stowed away for an inopportune moment in the future.
As such, rather than attempting to stop the tide, Hollywood might be better off focusing their PR efforts on navigating the ‘post-unearthing’ fallout period.
