Awards season may be over, but “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón got one last post off Monday morning to compliment Conan O’Brien for being a “fantastic” Oscars host. The emcee had some jabs for Gascón during his opening monologue, referencing the best actress nominee’s resurfaced internet posts that were interpreted as racist and cast a shadow over her film’s awards campaign.
“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 wrote on Instagram in Spanish, translated to English by Variety. The line is a callback to O’Brien’s monologue, in which the first-time Oscars host jokingly implored, “Karla, if you’re going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”
Gascón continued by honoring her “Emilia Pérez” collaborators who won awards during the ceremony: “I loved hugging so many friends and colleagues on this return. Congratulations to all the winners, especially [Zoe Saldaña] and [Camille.]”
O’Brien had preceded his onstage interaction with Gascón with a joke about the scandal’s reverberations through the Hollywood community: “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.”
A few weeks after being Oscar-nominated for lead actress, along with 12 other nods for “Emilia Pérez,” Gascón came under fire for social media posts, in which the actor expressed Islamophobic sentiments, commentary on George Floyd and critical statements about diversity at the Oscars. After performing media interviews without consulting “Emilia Pérez” distributor Netflix or the awards campaign’s PR team, the companies elected to stop paying for Gascón’s awards season stops. However, that decision was reversed for the Oscars ceremony, which Gascón attended after skipping the red carpet.
“Emilia Pérez” nabbed wins in best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña and in best original song for “El Mal”, written by Camille, Clément Ducol and director Jacques Audiard. See the full list of Sunday’s Oscar winners here.