Megyn Kelly unleashes on trans Emilia Perez star Karla Sofia Gascon after Oscars Best Actress nomination

Megyn Kelly has lashed out in an explosive rant against the transgender star of Emilia Perez, who made history as the first openly trans performer ever nominated for the Oscars Best Actress award. 

Kelly argued on her show Thursday that Hollywood remains out of touch with the American people as she explained her stance on why Karla Sofia Gascon should not receive the highly-coveted award. 

'Among the people nominated for Best Actress is a man - a man I tell you,' the podcaster said, referencing Gascon by her birth gender.

'He used to be known until he was like in his late 40s as Carlos Gascon. He goes by Karla Sofia Gascon; he is 52 years old and transitioned in 2016 - so called transitioned.'

She went on to say that the premise of the film is 'tailor made for awards in Hollywood,' and called out the actress' Golden Globes speech. 

'He called for trans people to stand up to bigotry, and now he has been nominated,' Kelly said. 

'He has taken one of the five coveted spots for Best Actress - Best Actress,' she repeated, emphasizing the name of the award.

Kelly then appeared to suggest that major actresses only have themselves to blame, as she played a clip from the movie showing actress Zoe Saldana asking about sex change operations.

'My basic take is all the Hollywood women deserve this and I don't feel sorry for them,' she said.

The musical tells the story of a brutal cartel leader who tries to fake her death so that she can finally live life as a female.

On Kelly's show, guests from Ruthless got behind her thoughts, joking about the movie's premise: 'I do love the idea of a transitioning cartel boss, I would love to know how that went down like in the meeting... 'by the way I want to be a woman.'" 

The popular news host said it was clear 'Hollyweird' hasn't received the message that the American people feel efforts to 'accommodate the transgender' stuff has gone too far.   

'There has been a clear message sent, not just by Republicans, but by Democrats as well,' Kelly said.  

'Hollyweird hasn’t received said message because the Oscar nominations came out today and among the people nominated for Best Actress in a leading role is a man.'

She noted Conclave was also recognized - a movie Kelly previously said 'mocks the Catholics'.

'So, you can see exactly what the Oscars is doing. This is the night to stand up and celebrate how much they hate Catholics, how much they believe men can become women, and how much they hate Donald Trump – whether they say it explicitly or not.'

Gascon is up against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) for Best Actress.

She had previously become the first trans actress to earn a nomination at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, where she accepted the award for Best Film - Musical or Comedy.

'Thank you so much,' Gascon said in her acceptance speech, wearing a bright yellow and orange dress.  

'I chose these colors tonight because I have a message. The light always wins over darkness. 

'I have a lot of things to say to you, because you can maybe put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you never can take away our soul, our existence, our identity,' she added of transgender people.

'I want to say to you, raise your voice. And say, I am who I am. Know who you are. Thank you so much.'

The film had also won awards for International Feature, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Original Score, and Original Song for two of its musical numbers.

Emilia Perez also won the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award for an ensemble at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and the first Best Actress Award for an ensemble.

Now the film, which also stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, is up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress for Saldana, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature at the Oscars, which airs on March 2.

Major female players in Hollywood have previously championed the controversial film, with Meryl Streep praising the movie and Gomez's performance in particular, describing it as 'beautiful, smudged, sensual, incredible'.

Critics have also been falling over themselves to post the most rave reviews with glowing think pieces lauding its bravery in focusing on underrepresented characters and delivering 'provocative' subject matter through a musical genre.

Amongst the hype, though, is criticism for its depiction of a trans woman.

Harron Walker for The Cut led the charge, writing: 'I don’t demand total realism from every film that I see. I can even appreciate the camp, whether intentional or not, of Emilia waking up from her 5-million simultaneous surgeries, her face bandaged like a mummy save for her eyes and lips.'

'But I expect that a filmmaker so taken by the concept of transitioning, one who’s displayed a certain level of conscious sensitivity in his previous efforts to depict lives unlike his own, to at least display an informed understanding of what that concept actually looks like in practice.'