The Golden Globes made history by nominating a male-born performer who identifies as female for best actress, a move reigniting pushback over biological males usurping honors intended for women.
Karla Sofia Gascon was nominated Monday for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, for playing a Mexican drug lord who undergoes a gender transition in the 2024 film “Emilia Perez.”
The nod represents the first time the Golden Globes have nominated a male-born entertainer in the female category for movies, although the award show did so previously in the television category.
Last year, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, who underwent a gender transition in 2016, took home the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, for playing a transgender character in the FX series “Pose.”
The 52-year-old actor appeared in Mexican television shows and the 2013 movie “Nosotros los Nobles” under the name Juan Carlos Gascon before deciding to transition from male to female at the age of 46.
“I said, ‘I’m going to (change) everything’ — and I totally changed my life, and here we are,” Ms. Gascon said in an interview on the Golden Globes website.
“My wife asked me a very nice question when I decided to do this. She told me ‘And now what are you going to do? What are you going to do? What is going to become of us?’” the actor said. “I responded, ‘Do you know what I’m going to do? It’s about surpassing everything I did before,’ and look where we are.”
Competing with the “Emilia Perez” star for the Golden Globe are Amy Adams, Cynthia Erivo, Demi Moore, Mikey Madison and Zendaya.
The decision to include male-born performers in the female category isn’t unique to the Golden Globes, as evidenced by Ms. Gascon’s success this year at the major film awards.
Last weekend, Ms. Gascon won Best European Actress honors at the 37th European Film Awards, after previously sharing the Best Actress prize with “Emilia Perez” co-stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldana at the Cannes Film Festival.
The honors for Ms. Gascon as well as “Emilia Perez,” which led the field with 10 Golden Globe nominations, also send a political message: the film industry is standing behind the transgender-rights movement amid a national backlash over issues such as gender transitions for minors and fairness in women’s sports.
Kara Dansky, spokesperson for the U.S. chapter of the Women’s Declaration International, said the actor is displacing women who would have ordinarily received the nominations.
“It’s a problem any time an honor or award meant for a woman goes to a man,” said Kara Dansky, author of the 2023 book “The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls.”
“That goes for both of Gascon’s existing awards and his Golden Globe nomination,” she said. “This is yet another example of erasing the female sex.”
Its accolades notwithstanding, “Emilia Perez” has met with a mixed reception from critics.
The Spanish-language film directed by Jacques Audiard received a 76% critics’ score and 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with even some positive reviewers depicting the movie as an operatic, exuberant mess.
Not so Ms. Gascon, whose performance as the drug lord before and after transitioning has won widespread acclaim, spurring speculation that the performer could be the first biological male to win an Oscar nod in the female acting category.
Ms. Gascon called the Cannes prize “an absolute honor” and described the role as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.
“Obviously, it was also a joy because whether you like it or not, I represent a marginalized minority of society that needs to be recognized the way other people have throughout cinema,” Ms. Gascon said in an interview last week with ABC News host Linsey Davis. “And for me, it’s an honor.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.