Who is Karla Sofía Gascón, the Spanish trans actress nominated for the Oscars: her transition, her partner and her daughter

If there is a Spanish actress who has surprised the world in recent months, it is Karla Sofia Gascón. The performer has made history by becoming the first transsexual woman to receive a nomination for Best Actress at the Oscars and the second Spanish woman to achieve it. He will do it for his leading role in the film ‘Emilia Perez’by Jacques Audiard, with which it also aspires to win the award for best film on the most important night of international cinema.

The name of the actress, born in Alcobendas 53 years ago, It had been ringing in the pools for months for the prestigious awards, especially after her nomination at the Golden Globes. Now, with this confirmation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Spanish actress will compete for the award with the other great protagonists of the films of the year, such as Demi Moore (‘The Substance’) or Mikey Madison (‘Anora’).

The role of Emilia Pérez in French fiction has changed the life of Karla Sofía Gascón, whose name was almost unknown until a few months ago in Spain. During her years in our country, the artist could only opt for supporting roles in some productions. Of course, it has a extensive career in Mexicostarring in some of the most followed soap operas in the country. We tell you everything you need to know about Karla Sofía Gascón.

He left Spain to succeed in Mexican soap operas

Although the name of Karla Sofía Gascón may sound unknown to many, the truth is that she was born in 1972 in the town of Alcobendasin Madrid. The actress, born under the name Carlos Gasconalways knew that he wanted to dedicate himself to the audiovisual world and, at the age of 16, he began to move in search of a space that would allow him to fulfill his dream. Thus, he participated in programs and series of the time such as ‘The TV is yours colleague’, ‘El Águila de Fuego’, ‘El Super’ or ‘The Past is Tomorrow’.

However, it was not in our country where the first doors were opened for him to succeed in this world. With the intention of establishing herself as an actress, Gascón moved to Mexico at the initiative of director Julián Pastor to join the cast of some Mexican soap operas. It was not easy, since she had to adapt to the exaggerated style of these programs, which she was not used to. «I had a lot of problems with them precisely because I I didn’t adapt to them but rather they were the ones who had to adapt to me,” he says.

Once there, he played the gypsy Branko in the soap opera ‘Wild at Heart’a role for which she was nominated for revelation actor at the Tv&Novelas Awards. Since then, his fame in the country was increasing and he participated in other renowned productions such as ‘Llena de amor’, ‘El cura y el poison’, ‘Nosotros los nobles’ or ‘El lord de los cielos’.

Karla Sofía Gascón’s transition and death threats for being trans

The biggest change in his life was yet to come. In 2018, Karla Sofía Gascón surprised the world by announcing that I was a trans woman after presenting his autobiographical book ‘Karsia. An extraordinary story.’ She had spent years feeling this way, although she had not until then begun to live publicly as a woman: “There was very painful moments. At some points I even thought about take my life», he said some time later.

«At four years old I already felt like a woman“I have gone through many moments in my life in which I wanted to be me, but who knows in which country they could help you,” he said in an interview on Mexican television. However, having been born in the 70s in Spain, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, he never considered the possibility of coming out: «It was impossible to consider any physical changes nor express yourself as you were,” said the movie star.

Even knowing how she really felt, she decided to follow her dream of being an actress under her birth name and that was when she began to consider the possibility of revealing her true identity: «I wanted to do many things with Carlos and I think I achieved them, and when I achieved do them, is when I really considered if I could or If I wanted to let this femininity pass that was very present in me since I was four years old,” he revealed.

The decision to announce her gender change to the world was made thanks to the support of her family. Even though she was aware that the decision to live openly as a woman could affect your life and workdid not look back: «When I finished making the transition, I I didn’t know what was going to happen to me nor what was going to happen to me or if I was going to act again», he then explained.

His transition has also led him to receive death threats in his adopted country, as he revealed in an interview with El País: «They have told me everything and more. In Mexico until They threatened to dismember me and put me in a garbage bag.. However, things have to change and perhaps my responsibility is there: to defend that people are people and we can do whatever we want,” he explained to the aforementioned media.

Despite these problems, it has been his transition that has brought him the great role of his career, the one he plays in the film ‘Emilia Perez’. In it, the Spanish woman plays a boss of a Mexican cartel who has the purpose of changing sex to be the woman he has always wanted and disappear with cleanliness and money. A role that has already helped him win the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festivalbeing the first trans woman to do so, and which has put her fully in the race for the Oscars.

His wife of 20 years and his only daughter

Regarding her personal life, few details are known about Karla Sofía Gascón. On more than one occasion the actress has spoken about his wife, Marisa Gutiérrezwho has been a great support throughout his life and also his transition, something that he never hid from him: «We have been together for almost 39 yearswe are part of each other because we have grown up together. We come from a working-class neighborhood, let’s say, not low, but from the middle class of Spain,” said the interpreter of ‘Emilia Pérez’ in an interview in 2020.

Their relationship has always been marked by comings and goings, as the Oscar nominee revealed in the podcast ‘Alone with…’ by Vicky Martín Berrocal. The one from Alcobendas then said that, at the moment she decided to transition, “He was in a relationship in Mexico with a senator”. During this relationship, things were not as she expected: “There was a moment when I said ‘swallow me dirt’ and I almost took a decision to get out of the way», he explained to the designer.

After that complicated love experience, Karla Sofía He returned to Spain with his wife: «Personally I have to put a monument in recognition of his work with me, his love for me and what a wonderful person he has been. I met her when I was 19 and she was 18 and she has been through everything with me and always, in the end, The love he has for me has been stronger than all the shit I have done to him and continue to do.. When it’s not one thing, I do another,” the interpreter has revealed.

The protagonist of ‘Emilia Pérez’ then admitted that he had done “a lot of shit” to his wife for not being able to “stay still”although he assured that his thing went beyond marriage: «Marisa is my family. It doesn’t matter what we do, it doesn’t matter where we are. It has happened more than many people from my real family, it is impossible that it is not my family […] He is the person I have leaned on, Without her I wouldn’t be here, I owe her everything. She is the one who has pushed the car all her life and we have to recognize it,” he then revealed.

Together they had a daughter, Elisa Victoriawho has also received the same values ​​as their mothers. The actress said in this same interview that both had decided to educate her regardless of gender, forming her as a person: “The truth We don’t treat her like a boy or like a girl.but as a person. She doesn’t have any kind of vibe, or prejudice, or anything because Before he had a father and now he has two mothers», explained the Spanish woman in Infobae.

The two women have been in charge of educating their only daughter in their own way, although the truth is that in motherhood they also have very different characters: “Her mother, the one who gave birth to her, is more organized, stricter and pragmatic and I am more physical, more crazy. On the one hand he has the one who demands it and another who is the one who tells him the story. “We are two very different people, Marisa and I, and we understand each other when it comes to educating the girl,” he revealed to this same medium.