Zoe Saldaña continues to think through the backlash against her Emilia Pérez costar Karla Sofía Gascón, after racist and Islamophobic social media posts that she had made in the past surfaced on social media Jan. 30.

“I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” Saldaña told Variety, in an excerpt of an upcoming episode of its Awards Circuit Podcast, published Wednesday. “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here.”

Saldaña said the person who wrote the offensive social media posts was not the one she worked with on the musical thriller. “I can’t attest to what people do in their private time with their private handles,” she said.

Though the Avatar star’s comments echoed statements she made in January, she said she was still figuring out exactly how she felt about the situation.

“You may believe that it’s just a statement I came up with alongside my team, but at the end of the day, when I can’t speak on behalf of anyone else, I can only speak on behalf of myself and what I witnessed,” Saldaña said. “And that needs to be enough for now. I’m still processing. I certainly think that this is a learning experience. Everything in life is a learning experience for all of us. And the point of uncomfortable events is for the sake of evolution. So I hope that we continue moving in the right direction.”

The negative Gascón story is getting serious attention, just as the Oscars near. Nominations revealed last month showed that Emilia Pérez would be up for 13 statuettes — more than any other film this year, including best picture and acting awards both for Gascón, who’s the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Oscar, in the Best Actress category and Saldaña for Best Supporting Actress. It’s Saldaña’s first Oscar nomination, and EW predicts she’ll win the category despite the controversy.

“I’m allowing myself to still experience that joy because we did come together as a team,” Saldaña said. “But we are also individuals who are responsible for everything that we say and everything that we do.”

Meanwhile, the film’s director, Jacques Audiard, has disavowed Gascón, saying that she is “in a self-destructive approach.”

“It’s very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía,” he told Deadline in an interview published Wednesday. “The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust. And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It’s as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.”

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Neither had spoken to Gascón, who apologized the same day the posts went viral.

“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”