Karla Sofía Gascón reacts to Conan O’Brien’s jokes about her in Oscars monologue: ‘Very entertaining’
Gascón wrote an Instagram post saying she "really liked" the award show and congratulated her Emilia Peréz colleagues on their wins
By Gary Grimes
Emilia Peréz star Karla Sofía Gascón has reacted to Oscars host Conan O’Brien’s jokes about her in his opening monologue, appearing to be a good sport about the ribbing the comedian gave her.
Referring to the actress’s scandal surrounding a number of her racist tweets resurfacing earlier this year, O’Brien joked: “A little fact for you, Anora uses the ‘F-word’ 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.”
He later pointed out the actress’s presence at the ceremony, saying: “Karla Sofía Gascón is here tonight. And Karla if you are going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.” Gascón maintained composure throughout as she was seen smiling from the audience.
She has since taken to Instagram to acknowledge the moment, writing: “Thanks to the members of [the Academy] for the nomination as best leading actress, for the invitation to the gala; I really liked it, very entertaining and fun, especially its fabulous presenter Jimmy Kimmel, he is fantastic, every day he looks more like the great Conan O’Brien.”
Gascón also congratulated her co-star Zoe Saldaña who won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, and the songwriting duo Clement Ducol and Camille who won Best Original Song for ‘El Mal’ from the film’s soundtrack. “I loved hugging so many friends and colleagues on this return. Congratulations to all the winners, especially @zoesaldana @camilleofficiel @clementducol [Zoe Saldaña] and [Camille],” she wrote.
Elsewhere, Walt Disney TV’s Rob Mills, exec VP of unscripted and alternative entertainment recently denied that plans for the acting categories to be presented in ‘Fab Five’ style were scrapped as a result of the Gascón controversy.
In some previous years of the award ceremony, the nominees in categories like Best Actress were announced by five previous winners in the category who took to the stage to read a short speech about why each of that year’s nominees had made the cut.
Following the scandal surrounding Gascón, there was speculation that plans to do this again were scrapped as producers could not find somebody who would be willing to introduce Gascón’s nomination.
“I can tell you, my hand to God, that was not ever the plan. The Fab Five plans were done months before [the scandal],” Mills said in a recent interview with Variety. “You have to remember when you’re winnowing it down to people who have won in the past in those respective categories, the list is not incredibly long. It’s hard to get that many people to get there. They have to book 20 Academy Award-winning actors and actresses. It is really difficult.”
This year’s ceremony saw a cast of ‘Fab Five’ actors instead introduce nominees in technical categories. “It also was a way to sort of give a shine a light on some of the technical categories too, which is why it was so great with costuming and cinematography. So, this had nothing to do with Karla,” Mills confirmed.