‘Emilia Pérez’s’ Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez Find Harmony on the Cover of ‘Queue’ Issue 18

Fall is here, and along with the arrival of multihued leaves and cooler temperatures, is the latest issue of Queue, featuring the women of Emilia Pérez: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez, photographed by Ruvén Afanador.

The trio has been taking the cinematic world by storm since they, alongside co-star Adriana Paz, were bestowed with the Best Actress award upon their film’s electric premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this past May. Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez tells the story of a cartel leader (Gascón) who enlists the help of an underappreciated lawyer (Saldaña) to help her fake her death and live life as her true self. The musical crime drama required the performers to sing and dance in addition to embracing their characters and all their complexities. “I broke through with this role, and I broke through some personal barriers in my acting. This really took me to another place,” says Gascón in our cover story. Her co-star Gomez agrees: “I don’t ever want to do a role that comes naturally to me. I love challenging roles, and I love that this one is going to start a lot of conversations.” At the heart of the genre-defying film is an ensemble of women on a journey to discover their own truths, happiness, and fulfillment. “There’s nothing stronger than a band of women coming together as a collective . . . to create harmony, magic, and art,” says Saldaña. “And that’s exactly what we all did.”

Also hitting just the right notes is The Piano Lesson, a filmic adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play from first-time feature director Malcolm Washington. Starring John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, and Samuel L. Jackson, the drama, which premiered earlier this month at the Telluride Film Festival, centers on a brother and sister as they clash over whether or not to sell an heirloom piano, challenging their beliefs of how best to honor their family’s legacy. In Queue, the writer-director looks back on the emotional journey of making the film: “Out of a love for August and reverence for his legacy, I thought it was really important that new audiences get to see this and engage with this work,” says Washington. “That was the driving force we used to get through most of the obstacles: the fear, self-doubt, or anything like that. For me, it was too important not to see through.”

Family is also at the center of His Three Daughters, featuring Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon, and Elizabeth Olsen as estranged sisters who reunite to care for their father in his final days. The film was specifically written for the three actors by director Azazel Jacobs, and their complicated yet tender chemistry crackles throughout the intimate drama. “We were all aggressively involved in each other’s personal lives. All three of us were willing to have that relationship on set,” says Olsen of their dynamic.

Our 18th issue also features some of autumn’s most anticipated films and series, including festival favorite documentary Will & Harper, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour, the series adaption of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the beguiling film adaptation of Pedro Páramo from first-time filmmaker (and four-time Oscar®-nominated cinematographer) Rodrigo Prieto. All this and much more can be found in our latest issue, available on the Netflix shop.

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