Three very different actresses found sisterhood—and career-transforming roles—in the Spanish-language movie musical.
Nothing about Emilia Pérez should make sense. It’s a graphically violent story about cartels but also an exuberant musical. It’s a family story and a crime story. It’s shocking—and it’s great.
French director Jacques Audiard cast Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia, a powerful cartel leader who has been quietly transitioning while looking to live a different kind of life. Gascón has had a long career in Mexican television and film, but this is her first movie role since coming out as a trans woman. She stars alongside Zoe Saldaña, who plays her lawyer, and Selena Gomez as her former wife.
It’s an ensemble that challenges and stretches how we perceive each of them. Saldaña, who has veered toward sci-fi with the Avatar and Avenger franchises—some of the highest grossing films of all time—leans into her Latina identity (she is Dominican and Puerto Rican) with Emilia Pérez, giving one of the strongest performances of her career. Gomez is taking on her first dark and violent part since Spring Breakers in 2012. And Gascón is being introduced to the world—and has potential to make awards history—via a once-in-a-career role.
Gascón, Gomez, and Saldaña, who, along with Adriana Paz, won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival, quickly bonded on set. “The sisterhood ended up becoming what got us through,” Gomez says, who saw Emilia Pérez as a major step into the unknown. “It’s still getting me through. I’m so glad that I’m not doing a bunch of scary things on my own.”
What did you think when you read the script for Emilia Pérez?
Karla Sofía Gascón: The first thing I thought was that it was going to be a very complicated film. It didn’t have a defined genre and I really didn’t understand the complexity until we started the filming and editing process. The movie that I read in that first script is nothing like the movie that we filmed, is nothing like the movie that was edited; and is nothing like the movie that I saw that first time in Cannes.
Selena Gomez: It was one of those things that you read and thought, how on earth could this be made? It’s too crazy. It could be done in a bad way, but it was so exciting at the same time.
Had you wanted to do Spanish-speaking roles before?
Zoe Saldaña: The opportunity never really came. Either the project just wasn’t the right fit for me or an Afro-Caribbean Latina wasn’t the right fit for the project. It’s a combination of a director’s vision, which you want to be respectful of and honor, and the other side, colonialism and colorism, which is rampant in Latin America. I was very much like, “Well, that’s okay, I’m going to dance to the beat of my own drum and I’ll go to space and I’ll be green and I’ll be blue [in the Avengers and Avatar films] and I’ll do all those things.” Then 15 years go by, and I’m yearning for that reconnection.
It’s rare for a film to have three female leads.
KSG: I don’t understand why we can’t have female leads who are really powerful. Honestly, I’m a little bit tired of women in movies always being shown as weak or suffering or having a ton of problems they’re unable to overcome. Movies have these male leads like Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt and people want to be like them. And why not women? Why can’t women have this type of work and portray these types of characters that people see themselves in?
ZS: I remember when I was very young, being the only female in a whole cast felt empowering. But after you do one too many of those projects, it’s a lonely place to be the only woman.
What did you wish you knew before getting into the business?
SG: I have no regrets and I have a fantastic family and there were rules laid down by my parents and I’m appreciative of that. However, I don’t think I would’ve done it very young if I was thinking of myself now. There were a lot of things that I felt stunted by. Then adding a lot of pressure from a lot of people didn’t help me develop a sense of self in my twenties. It was a very difficult time. I live with it every day. I try my hardest to stay positive about everything and focus on things like this [movie] that really make me happy. But I would just say maybe wait and have a little bit of a life.
ZS: I wish I knew the power of saying no. You feel like you’re running out of time, especially if you’re a woman. It was do it all, “Do as much as possible, say yes as much as you can,” even when those moments were betraying my true feelings about how I felt about meeting someone or jumping into something really quickly. One thing I try to tell a lot of younger women is [along the line of what] something that I heard Jane Fonda say in an interview: You can always say no.
Is there a woman in Hollywood who has supported you?
ZS: It was the casting directors—amazing women who are always finding these diamonds in the rough. Where would I have been if it weren’t for these women? They were telling me to come in on a Sunday at 9 A.M., and putting me on tape, telling me, “Don’t do this” and “Do that, and do it again and again.” There were directors and producers who were like, “We want to go traditional, I don’t think she’s right for the part.” And they would be like, “No, no, you need to watch her.”
SG: I remember being on set with Meryl Streep [for Only Murders in the Building], trying to shoot her side so that she could go home and have the next day off. Toward the end of the day, she said, “Wait, no, why aren’t we turning around?” And they said, “Oh, we’ll do that tomorrow.” And she goes, “No, no, I must come in, I should be here for them.” It was so classy and showed that she really still loved the craft and that she wanted to be there for us too. I’ll never forget her being barefoot, singing on set, just loving what she’s doing. I want that spirit, I want to always love what I do and be there for people.
What was your most challenging role?
SG: The most challenging one, because I was only 18 or 19, was Spring Breakers. It was the first thing I did right after my Disney show and it was such a crazy detour. That’s when I knew I was going to fall in love with filmmakers and really gritty, fun stuff that was a little too graphic.
Is there a moment in your career that still amazes you?
ZS: I’m a girl from Queens. I really love being from Jackson Heights, but it’s such a world in its own. The day that Steven Spielberg gave me my first opportunity or James Cameron or J.J. Abrams or James Gunn, and then Jacques Audiard, my heart skipped a beat. Those are those moments where through that struggle that I have with loving myself, I’m repurposed. I’m compelled to see myself as others are seeing me, and the sacrifices that I’m putting in every day are being rewarded. It’s a shot of oxygen into my lungs, and it reshapes me and raises me; it reconnects me to my higher self.
KSG: Showing my work in a theater where there’s one person, and shortly after showing it to 3000 people in a theater in Cannes. Our work is really an amazing roller coaster.
SG: Being in this moment with these women [talking] about a movie that’s so important and moving and beautiful, it’s been a wow moment for me. I definitely didn’t expect all of what’s happening. It just feels like a time in my life that I’m extremely grateful for. Honestly, every day I wake up thinking, How did I get to do this?
Each of you has done very different things in your careers. What did you learn from each other?
ZS: From Karla, I’ve learned that passion shouldn’t be judged as something that’s right or wrong. Passion can be crazy beautiful. If it comes with an intention that is genuine and pure, then it’s only a good thing. Karla is a force of nature.
I would look at Selena and just hear her talk and watch her command a room with so much humility. There’s an ageless essence to her that makes me always feel like I’ll accept any advice or guidance that comes from this young woman who’s such a boss lady.
KSG: It was a little complicated for me, at first. I really had to shed that fandom that anyone would have when working with two Hollywood stars. It took some effort for me. And I think sometimes it could have put our relationship at risk, but I wanted to make sure that they felt like family, that there was nothing that was going to interfere with our work.
SG: With Karla, I’ve never been more challenged artistically. She has this strength about her in her performance and her dedication. It would just blow me away and I would feel a little intimidated. Zoe would come to work every day so grateful that she was there. We could bond over that. I’m very lucky that these women came into my life and that hopefully they will be in my life forever.
There is a conversation that comes up with movies involving cartels about whether they are a stereotype and dominate the kinds of stories we see about Latin America. Your movie takes a different approach to this, but is it something you considered when thinking about the role?
ZS: This was the first time where [a movie about this] didn’t feel stereotypical. There was a layer to it. Yes, that’s the beginning premise of this story, but it’s not really the essence of it. If anything, the history of violence when it comes to a patriarchal structure is what this movie accentuates.
KSG: I’m tired of people saying that. Movies are not like documentaries. Movies are created to entertain. Honestly, this could have been shot in the south of Spain, where a lot of drug trafficking goes on. It’s not really about the place. At the end of the day, what is left is that we are not just speaking about these terrible things that are happening. The movie highlights a lot of hope.
What challenges do you think remain for women in Hollywood and what support is needed?
ZS: We condition ourselves to believe that we always have to fight and we always have to push and I think that’s very important. Something that’s also very important is to pause and look back and appreciate the progress that has been made. We will never be happy with the pace of how change happens for the better, but it has been happening since the beginning of cinema. We are completely different today from where we were 20 years ago and then 40 years ago and 60 years ago. There has been an evolution.
I feel like a film like Emilia Pérez is a testament to that. For me to ignore it and only talk about the battle that we always have to have is to me not being present and appreciating the fact that Jacques Audiard could have told any story, and yet this was the one that captivated his heart.
And he not only wanted to highlight Emilia Pérez, but also wanted to give Rita [Zoe] and Jessi [Selena] and Epifanía [Adriana] their light as well. So he didn’t only have time for one woman in his story, he had time for four.
SG: I hope that our movie can be a great example to other creatives of how to be able to allow us to enrich each of these characters. He let us do that with such freedom. It felt like you could see it on screen. Every one of us would love to just, again, give people hope. But yes, there’s much more to do.
