Cannes Film Festival: Actress fights to show Jesus crown of thorns dress; man wins best actress award
The Cannes Film Festival was marked by controversial moments this year, including an incident on the red carpet when a female security guard clashed with Dominican actress Massiel Taveras, who fought to display the train of her dress depicting Jesus Christ. Another controversial moment was when a trans-identified male actor who goes by the female name Karla Sofia Gascon won the Best Actress award.
Taveras, dressed in a black gown and white cape with a long train featuring a hand-painted image of Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns, encountered a problematic situation. As she attempted to arrange her dress to display the image, ushers and security intervened, hastily directing her up the stairs. This interaction was captured in a video showing Taveras visibly upset and pushing ushers away after they made physical contact with her to hurry her along.
Despite the disruption, Taveras, 39, later showcased her dress, designed by Giannina Azar and featuring the image painted by Yan Páez, inside the theater, as reported by Deadline.
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The incident echoed a similar confrontation experienced by singer and actress Kelly Rowland days earlier. “The woman knows what happened, I know what happened,” Rowland told The Associated Press about that incident last Tuesday. When Rowland was at the premiere of the French film “Marcello Mio,” she and an usher, the same female security guard, exchanged words after the guard rushed her along. The usher stepped on her dress and repeatedly touched her arm, which angered Rowland and led to a heated exchange.
“I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries, and that is it,” she added. “And there were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me, and they didn’t get that scolding, or pushed off, or told to get off. I stood my ground, and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground.”
In an Instagram post, Taveras reshared posts detailing Rowland’s experience, praising her. She also wrote, “We need respect.”
The incident caught the attention of Miss B Converted, who describes herself as a “Repentant sinner, converted to Christ.” She took to social media to criticize the festival. “The Cannes Film Festival tried its hardest to make sure Giannina Azar (the designer of Taveras’s dress) couldn’t display Jesus on the red carpet. Pardon my bluntness but Hollywood is saturated w/satanists, pedophiles & the worst people on the planet. It’s no surprise the image of Christ is repulsive to them,” she wrote on X.
Also at Cannes, a 46-year-old Spanish, trans-identified male actor who goes by the name Karla Sofia Gascon, jointly won the Best Actress award for the roles in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez.”
During the acceptance speech, Gascon expressed gratitude to Audiard and dedicated the award to the trans community. “We all have the opportunity to change for the better, to be better people,” AFP quoted Gascon as saying. “If you have made us suffer, it is time for you also to change.”
Gascon shared the Best Actress award with Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz.
Gascon’s win was met with mixed reactions online, with Oli London, author of Gender Madness, posting on X, “Transgender man wins best ACTRESS award at the Cannes Film Festival.” London described the film “Emilia Perez” as a “trans gangster musical.” London, himself a former trans activist, also highlighted that Gascon “accepted the best actress award on behalf of the female members of the cast.”
