Conan O’Brien mocks Karla Sofía Gascón to her face in Oscars segment

3 March, 2025

Oscars

Conan O’Brien made fun of Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweeting controversy at the Oscars, with the Emilia Pérez actress in attendance.

O’Brien was the host for the 97th Academy Awards, which were held on Sunday (March 2) at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Drama Anora was the big winner on the night, winning five awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

During his opening monologue, O’Brien said: “Anora uses the ‘F-word’ 479 times – that’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist,” before mimicking the publicist on the phone shouting: “she tweeted what??”

Later he would say: “Karla Sofía Gascón is here tonight – and Karla, if you are going to tweet about the Oscars, my name is Jimmy Kimmel”. Talk show star Kimmel hosted the previous two ceremonies.

Gascón was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in the drama, the first openly transgender actor to be honoured. While she attended the ceremony, she skipped the red carpet prior to the event. She would lose out in her category to Anora actor Mikey Madison.

In late January, past tweets were discovered on Gascón’s account, which expressed derogatory views about Muslims, the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and the Oscars themselves. In one since-deleted post, she posted a picture of a Muslim family with a woman in a burka, describing the clothing tradition as “deeply disgusting”.

“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she said in a statement to Variety following the discovery. “As someone in a marginalised community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain”.

 

She later argued that her tweets were taken out of context, and denied that she was racist. In early February, Emilia Pérez co-star Zoe Saldaña commented on the controversy, saying she was “sad” and “also disappointed”. Fellow cast member Selena Gomez would also talk about the impact of the story, saying: “Some of the magic has disappeared”.

Following her Best Supporting Actress win at the Oscars, Saldaña apologised after being told Emilia Perez was “really hurtful” for Mexicans, explaining: “We spoke from a place of love”.

O’Brien also made a joke about the Kendrick Lamar–Drake beef at the ceremony, joking “don’t worry, I’m lawyered up”.

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