Oscar-nominated actress Karla Sofia Gascon apologises for racist tweets

She has issued a statement

Gascon, who is the first transgender performer to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress, said she knew the 'suffering' all too well, coming from a 'marginalised community'.

In a statement, Gascon said: "As someone in a marginalised community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain.

"All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness."

The largely Spanish-language genre-defying musical has already won four Golden Globes and is the most nominated in the Academy Awards race, picking up 13 nods including supporting actress, original score, director, international feature film and best picture.

The Netflix film, directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, will be hoping the controversy will not derail its chances of winning statuettes.

Old posts from Gascon's Twitter account - some going as far back as 2016 - resurfaced this week.

In the posts, she took aim at Muslims' dress, language and culture in her native Spain and suggested Islam should be banned.

Less than a month after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in 2020, which prompted a global reckoning with police brutality and racism, Gascon called Floyd a drug addict who 'very few people ever cared' for.

The now-deleted posts were screenshotted and shared by writer Sarah Hagi, who wrote: "This is all from the star of a movie that is campaigning on its progressive values, you really gotta laugh.

"Stuff like this doesn't get flagged because you can say whatever you want about Muslims, it's never considered racist. again, this isn't even all of them."

Several celebrities have been called out in recent times for old social media posts, including James Gunn, Trevor Noah and Blake Shelton but all have managed to salvage their reputations and continue their career trajectory.