“Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón has landed her first film role since racist tweets came to light earlier this year, setting off a scandal shortly after she scored a historic Best Actress Oscar nomination.
The 53-year-old Spanish actress, who in January became the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, announced at Europe’s Lovers Film Festival that she’ll star in the psychological thriller “The Life Lift,” Variety reports.
Gascón will play a psychiatrist who “embodies both God and the devil,” alongside fellow controversial actor Vincent Gallo, according to promotional materials obtained by the outlet on Thursday.
Gallo, known for “Buffalo ’66” and “The Brown Bunny,” will play a man ordered by Post-Its left in his New York apartment building to “murder three tenants who themselves plan to kill their relatives,” according to the film’s synopsis.
In January of last year, multiple women accused Gallo, 64, of inappropriate conduct while casting an upcoming film about the Golden State Killer, spurring an investigation by the SAG-AFTRA union.
Gascón herself faced scandal when tweets from recent years resurfaced days after she was nominated for the titular role in the Netflix Spanish-language musical, “Emilia Pérez,” itself a controversial project. In those tweets, Gascón suggested a ban against Islam, labeled George Floyd as “a drug addict and a hustler” and reportedly invoked Hitler while trying to make a point about racial and gender inequality.
Though “Emilia Pérez” was nominated for 13 Oscars, winning two, the backlash cost the film support in several major categories, including Best Performance by a Leading Actress, for which Gascón as nominated.
Gascón issued an apology for her remarks but also defended herself, saying she’s not responsible for her words being taken out of context nor how others interpret what she says.
