The race to win an Oscar is a lot like a political campaign. You attend events and woo voters at various gatherings. The only difference is that the Oscar events are a bit glitterier with far fewer crying babies. (At least not actual crying babies, I'm sure there are some adult celebrities that act like babies, but that's a topic for another day.) And just like in a political campaign, things from the past have a way of resurfacing again that could derail a person's chance of winning. Well, the campaign for the Best Actress Oscar has gotten very messy in the past week for this very reason.
First, Fernanda Torres, nominated for the film I'm Still Here, apologized after an old photo of her from a Brazilian sketch resurfaced showing Torres is blackface. "Almost twenty years ago, I appeared in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV show," Torres wrote in a statement published to Deadline. "I am very sorry for this. I'm making this statement as it is important for me to address this swiftly to avoid further pain and confusion."
Then, days later, old tweets from Karla Sofía Gascón, nominated for Emilia Pérez, resurfaced that were seen as xenophobic, racist, and just downright troubling in nature. (They've since been deleted, but it's the internet and nothing is ever really deleted.) Gascón's nomination made history as the first out transgender person to be nominated for an acting Oscar.
"As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain," Gascón said in a statement via Netflix, the studio behind Emilia Pérez.
Will this hurt their chances of winning the Oscar? Yes. There's no way it won't. That doesn't mean they won't win. But let's be real, an Oscar win is less about merit and more about appearances, and if your potential win casts a dark cloud over the night, your chances of taking the gold get slimmer and slimmer the more the controversy brews.
(That said, the Oscars have had no problem awarding complicated people like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen in the past, so who knows, right?)
That's it for me today. Keep scrolling for more entertainment news. I'll see you Monday!
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By H. Alan Scott
He's been in the business for more than 40 years, but Mark-Paul Gosselaar still feels like he hasn't experienced everything. "I still feel like I have so much left to learn. Every time I walk on a set, I learn something." Currently on NBC's Found, Gosselaar plays Sir, a man held captive by Gabi (played by Shanola Hampton), the adult woman his character kidnapped as a child. He chose the role because it was unlike anything he's done before. "I'm always looking for something to challenge me...that when I read it, I become a bit anxious about playing that role."
And there's still so much to be revealed about Sir. "We've just scratched the surface. There was an episode last season that showed Sir's childhood. I've been told that possibly in upcoming seasons we'll go deeper into Sir as a child, because there's a lot of questions that need to be answered." Part of what Gosselaar loves about Found is the chemistry he has with Hampton. "I enjoy coming to set because we have the leader of the show, Shanola, setting the tone as a good person.... It's just a great environment to be creative in."
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