The first transgender actor to claim Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday launched a legal complaint over a “sexist insult” from a French politician after the win.
Karla Sofia Gascon and co-stars jointly received the accolade for their performances in the musical Emilia Perez.
The unconventional movie musical, which also features Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, premiered Saturday in competition at Cannes, as Breitbart News reported.
In the film, the 52-year-old Spanish actor — who was born male and started identifying as a woman aged 46 — plays a Mexican drug trafficker both before and after gender reassignment surgery.
French politician Marion Marechal after the win posted on X: “So a man has won Best Actress. Progress for the left means the erasure of women and mothers.”
C’est donc un homme qui reçoit à Cannes le prix d’interprétation… féminine.
— Marion Maréchal (@MarionMarechal) May 26, 2024
Le progrès pour la gauche, c’est l’effacement des femmes et des mères. #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/ew3meyGYWj
Gascon used a lawyer to tell AFP: “We need to stop such comments.”
Lawyer Etienne Deshoulieres said the legal complaint was filed for “sexist insult on the basis of gender identity.”
Gascon, who has a wife and daughter, dedicated the win in Cannes to “all the trans people who are suffering.”
Karla Sofia Gascon (left) winner of the award for best actress for ‘Emilia Perez,’ and Jacques Audiard winner of the jury prize award for ‘Emilia Perez,’ pose for photographers during the photo call following the awards ceremony at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
At a press conference over the weekend, Gascón said trans people are human beings like everybody else and their gender should be “unimportant.”
“We’re normal people who can have the careers they want,” said Gascon, according to an AFP report.”Being trans is unimportant. A trans person is someone going through a transition. Once they have transitioned, that’s it. They are what they are.”
“We’re first and foremost human beings, and there’s no point sticking labels on us.”
