The actor has fiercely defended the film amid online criticism
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGES BY NETFLIX
Karla Sofía Gascón, the star of Emilia Pérez, has spoken out in defence of the trans musical as criticism swirls online.
The film follows a trans former Mexican cartel leader who fakes her death in order to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Despite dominating the 2025 award season, the film has received strong backlash online, with many saying the film plays into harmful tropes. These included trans people being violent, leaving their families behind and being “half man, half woman”. Many Mexican viewers have also said the film perpetuates racist stereotypes about them.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gascón fiercely rejected these criticisms: “First off, I’m tired of TikTokers, Instagrammers, influencers and people who get up in the morning and are all soccer coaches, they are all journalists, they are all film critics. You must be super well-adjusted to criticize the work of 700 people from your couch, sitting there next to your PlayStation.”
“Second, they claim to speak for everyone. Let me tell you: Being LGBT doesn’t make you less of an idiot,” added the actress.
She is heavily tipped to be nominated for a Best Actress award at the Oscars and has said social media commentary doesn’t reflect the wider response offline. “Social media is a lie. The reality is in the street. It’s the people who come up to you to say thank you. There is something beautiful happening in society… Many people are waiting for me to be nominated somewhere. If I’m given that award, they’ll jump for joy.”
Though Gascón’s remarks focused on social media, there has been criticism from LGBTQIA organisations and publications as well, which were not addressed by the actress. But, as in several interviews, including one with DIVA, she did talk about her involvement in adding trans representation to the script. In the original script, Emilia’s transformation is motivated by a need to evade arrest and her first post-surgery romance was with a man, changing her sexuality completely. But after Gascón’s intervention, Emilia wanted to be a woman and had a sapphic relationship.
The film and its star have also received a lot of hate from anti-trans circles as well. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she had been sent death threats. “I’ve gotten used to it,” she said. “In fact, I love it. It’s my gasoline to then tell the people of the light: ‘You have won.’ The more people hate me, the more insulting messages they send, the more I say, ‘Thank you,’ and the more I’m going to enjoy this moment.”
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