AceShowbiz - Karla Sofia Gascon, the first openly transgender person nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category, has opened up about the intense scrutiny and backlash she faced during her campaign for the Best Actress Oscar. Gascon's journey was marred by controversy over resurfaced social media posts.

"Amid this unexpected, devastating storm, there have been moments when the pain has been so overwhelming that I contemplated the unthinkable," Gascon said in a new statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I harbored darker thoughts than those I considered in some of my previous, no less intimate and personal struggles," she reflected on being the receiving end of hate after spewing racist messages against Black people, Asian, and Muslim on social media.

She apparently didn't like getting a taste of her own medicine, "I asked myself: if I, with all my strength and preparedness to deal with rage and rejection, am on the edge, what would have become of someone with fewer emotional resources to resist this onslaught? Somehow, I made it. Others would not have survived this brutal winter I am about to wrap up."

"Fortunately, I have kept my one inch of sanity to see the light at the end of this tunnel of hate and understand that I must be and do better, and correct my past faults, without engaging in more darkness," she said.

Gascon also took the opportunity to apologize to those she might have offended in the past and promised to continue learning and listening to avoid making the same mistakes.

"Only through understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and empathy can we build a world where difference is not synonymous with condemnation, but with richness. A world where we can learn and grow as we go. A world where we can all put our shields aside and be ourselves," she concluded.