‘Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón Becomes The First Openly Trans Person Ever Nominated For An Acting Oscar

Karla Sofía Gascón has become the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Gascón is recognized in the Best Actress category for her leading role in Jacques Audiard’s musical Netflix film, Emilia Pérez, and this Academy acknowledgement comes on the heels of recent Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations for Gascón’s performance.

In Emilia Pérez, Gascón stars as a cartel leader who turns to Mexico City lawyer Rita (Zoë Saldaña), to help her live as her authentic self. Selena Gomez stars as Emilia’s wife Jessi and Adriana Paz as Emilia’s girlfriend Epifanía. Gascón first made awards history with the role at Cannes when all four actresses shared the Best Actress award, with Gascón being the first openly trans actress ever to win the prize.

In October, Gascón discussed her feelings around representation with Deadline, saying, “I represent, obviously, the minority that I represent. But I think that I represent a lot of people in this world that want, or need, to be free. I’m talking about my colleagues, other actors that are coming up, that started from the bottom and have been working for a long time and have felt that rejection and continue to work and continue to learn and continue to grow. I think that’s maybe one of the very important groups of people that I represent. And I hope that I represent hope for my colleagues.”

While Gascón will, this year, be the first out trans person to be Oscar-nominated in an acting category, Elliott Page was nominated for Juno in 2008 before coming out as trans, and the first openly trans person ever to be Oscar-nominated was composer Angela Morley, for The Little Prince in 1975 and then again for The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella in 1978.

It would take another 40 years for another openly trans person to be nominated. British musician Anohni was nominated in Best Original Song for “Manta Ray” from the documentary Racing Extinction in 2016. Then, in 2018, Yance Ford, who made the documentary Strong Island, became the first out trans director to be nominated. That same year, A Fantastic Woman, starring Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega, won the Best Foreign Language Film category.

via: Deadline

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