The wildest Oscars season in recent memory is coming to a close on Sunday, but the actual awards ceremony might give us one last gasp of chaos. Despite being at the center of a potentially campaign-ruining scandal when her bigoted, Islamophobic tweets resurfaced, it seems like Karla Sofía Gascón will show up to the awards show. Not only that, but, per Variety, Netflix is footing the bill.
Gascón has been at the center of this mess since January, when she made Oscar history as the first openly transgender actress to be nominated when she got her nod for Emilia Pérez. A few days later, Gascón was revealed to have posted a slew of racist tweets over the years, some of which were levels of Islamophobic not seen since the Bush era.
Gascón apologized several times in several different formats — and with varying levels of sincerity — all of which managed to land her in an even deeper hole. Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, Gascón’s co-stars, have both shared statements distancing themselves from the actress, as has director Jacques Audiard. Eventually, both Netflix — the studio behind Emilia Pérez — and her PR company cut ties with Gascón. In early February, Variety reported that Netflix would no longer be footing the bill for any of Gascón’s travel or styling for awards shows, and that if she were going to attend any ceremony it would be on her own dime. Clearly, they’ve reconsidered.
Before all of this, Gascón was the face of the film, delivering a rousing speech at the Golden Globes when it won the award for Best Picture — Musical or Comedy. In the weeks since her tweets were dredged up, though, she has been all but erased from the Emilia Pérez awards campaign. Despite the fact that she plays the titular character, Gascón was nowhere to be seen in For Your Consideration materials and she did not appear in the montage presented by Saldaña and Gomez at the SAG Awards. In Oscars-obsessive circles, it seemed apparent that the scandal had tanked the film’s chances at winning just about anything. (Saldaña might still eke out a Best Supporting Actress win.)
She’s also been completely absent from the awards trail. Gascón did not appear at the BAFTAs, the PGAs, the Critics Choice Awards, or the SAG Awards, all ceremonies where either she or Emilia Pérez was nominated. Now, it seems she’s gearing up for a return — Variety reports that ahead of the Oscars, Gascón will attend the César Awards in Paris on Friday, presumably so she can remember how to walk a red carpet and clap politely before the big night.
Gascón’s decision to attend the Oscars opens up a huge can of worms for the Oscars production team. Where are they going to seat her? According to Variety, it’s still uncertain if she will walk the carpet or not — are the E! hosts capable of asking the tough questions? Will her co-stars, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, want to be near her that night? Or will she be placed all the way in the back with sound editors and production designers? Will the show’s directors embrace the scandal and cut to her if/when she loses (just based on how this race has been going, she was never going to win)? Or will they pretend like she’s not there at all? What kind of joke is Conan O’Brien going to make about this mess? Sunday needs to come quick.