Emilia Pérez stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez, Best Actor and Actress predictions, and more in EW's The Awardist digital magazine

The women of Emilia Pérez share their mixed emotions about singing for the musical melodrama — and the conflict between good and evil

Interview by Gerrad Hall
Illustration by Heldáy de la Cruz

Emilia Pérez is not your grandfather's crime drama.

The latest film from French filmmaker Jacques Audiard almost defies genre and definition...but we'll try: In addition to being a story about a Mexican cartel leader — who fakes their death so they can transition into the woman they've always felt they are — it's also a story about second chances, about ambition, about grief — done so through a soap opera-esque, melodramatic lens.

Oh, and it's a musical, adapted from Audiard's opera libretto of the same name, which was inspired by Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute. Trans Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón stars in the title role, calling upon her own life experience to imbue the character with unmatched complexity and truth. Zoe Saldaña plays her ambitious lawyer, who secretly helps her druglord client, Manitas, move his wife and children to Switzerland, under the ruse of protecting them from an increasingly dangerous drug war, in order to disappear and have gender-affirming surgery. His wife, Jessi, is played by Selena Gomez, whose journey through grief is an anguishing one made slightly better after her return to Mexico and reconnecting with a former love (Edgar Ramirez).

Their work, along with that of Adriana Paz, who plays a love interest to Emilia, earned them the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award, only the second in its nearly 80-year history that it's been awarded to an ensemble (Volver was the other, in 2006).

Below are excerpts from The Awardist's conversations with Gascón, and Saldaña and Gomez, about their complicated characters, watching the film for the first time, working with Gascón, and more.

On this movie being Karla's introduction to U.S. audiences

KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN: It's very important. As an actress, when you do what you love, you want people to see it — as many people as possible. I was known in the Latinx audience in Mexico in particular, and there's something really beautiful that happens there… I had to perform for a theater with one person [in the audience] and I remember the director would tell me, “There's just this one person. Should I just give them the money back?” And I said, “No, I want to.” Because for us as an actress, it's wonderful to get to show your performance for one person or in a cinema for 2,000 people or for millions of people that will now come and see this film. Some of them will like it, some of them will not. I think there's a lot of people that identify with the film and that feel a lot of wonder for it. So far in all the festivals, the comments have been very positive, but I remain cautious because I know that there's a lot of people that have issue with my lifestyle and that will try to dim or take down everything that we've built, but they will not be able to.

Why Selena was so emotional when she found out she got the role

SELENA GOMEZ: Jacques Audiard was one on my list [of directors to work with], for sure. I've always appreciated filmmakers and there's so many that I thought I would never be able to work with. Sticking to that and not necessarily taking on every role that maybe people think is right that I should do, this just felt so special. And I felt like the audition went well, but I was just so nervous. It was almost a full year until he told me, and that's why I cried; he says in an interview, “I knew it would be her, but I didn't tell her and she didn't [ask] me.” But it made it worth it in a way. I got it, and then I had to let it go, and I was really kind of bummed. And then when I got the call, that's why I was overwhelmed — like, wait a minute…this is a dream come true. 

What excited them about playing their characters

ZOE SALDAÑA: The story that kept kind of resonating with me as I was putting Rita together was Pinocchio, the relationship between Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. Rita is no Jiminy Cricket, by [any] means — she should have been a little more righteous and kept Emilia out of trouble. But at the end of the day, Emilia was such a force of nature that allowing Emilia to sort of be loose would give Rita this opportunity to live through her and get to experience the sensations of what it's like to be bold and be brave and be courageous and go after your own freedom. And I found those themes to be so relatable, either because growing up, I came across women — also men but primarily women — that would blow me away with just how crazy-beautiful they were and how go-getters they were. And I never felt like... I just didn't have the courage. So tapping into that vulnerability and what I thought was weakness — Rita believes as weakness — and how through her relationship with Emilia, it unfolds into her strength, that journey was very beautiful for me. 

GOMEZ: What excited me, first and foremost, was that there's four female leads and that they're all Latina — I'm so proud of that. Jessi is a fierce character, but she also has to go through these stages of grief and loss. I think she probably feels trapped and she doesn't feel like she's in the right place, whether that's in Mexico or Switzerland where she's moved to forcefully. I think she holds a lot of that anger in, and you can sense that through her attitude and her choices. She's been one of the best characters I've ever played. It was always a challenge every day, but it was something I was excited to get up and do every morning.

On this being Karla's first character who's portrayed both before and after gender-affirming surgery

GASCÓN: I would have loved to have been offered a part like this character before their transition. What changes today is that I have more experience, so I am better than when I started. When I started I was terrible, but I wish I had gotten a character like this when I was 25, 30 years old. It would've been amazing for my development as an actress, but for my personal development as well. In fact, I searched for roles like this. But I think with hindsight, it's important that I received this role now just because of the place that we are in society today. It's kind of the same thing that happens with people of color and white people that used to play them using blackface. I think characters in many instances should be represented by those who can intimately know what their lives are like. Now, this doesn't mean that to be a killer you have to kill, but I think it's important for trans actors. There's so many capable trans actors [who are] able to incorporate themselves in the acting community in a very natural way. And cinema many times feeds back into reality and the other way around — they nurture each other. I want people to see us on the screen as what we are: people who are doing their work as actors.

On playing someone responsible for many people's deaths and her journey to right those wrongs

GASCÓN: What's [better] conflict than that conflict between good and evil? I think this film allows us to connect with these people, these bad people. In reality, that doesn't happen when you see somebody like this on the news; you don't connect with them. It's funny how fiction allows you to do that. You tend to empathize more with the one that breaks the rules, that does evil things, than the good one. And how interesting to connect with the perverse and start thinking about the possibility of transformation? In my mind, I understand that the way I think of Manitas is that perhaps she ordered others to commit those crimes — that's how I play it out in my mind. We see them as a drug dealer that has done all of these horrible things, but we also don't know the circumstances that brought them to do those things. I would love to see a prequel where we learn that he's actually never killed anyone and he's actually this beautiful person that just wants to do good. I don't like to imagine all of the terrible things that we think he's done. Some things I think you cannot justify, but I hope that anybody in that position that is deep in darkness is able to embrace the light.

On singing in the film

GOMEZ: It was extremely vulnerable. I'm definitely used to being more in control of what the music sounds like, and this was really different for me. I wanted to get lost in their sauce. I wanted to step into their world and try to embody whatever was coming out of the words. Camille and Clément [Ducol] are really powerful people… Camille will start singing the song and she'll be like, “Just sing it right now with me.” And I'd be nervous. She actually got me to hit my highest note I've ever hit in a song, so that's amazing. 

SALDAÑA: I don't like to hear my voice when I'm working… Listening to the playback with my voice on it was a little challenging because it would totally throw me out. And then I get in my head about it. I'm very insecure. Maybe it's why I like to play these characters where I try not to see myself in it. But one thing that Jacques wanted was to have a live recording of it. It was kind of like a form of a trance because in a way, Rita is this woman that is the opposite of Emelia. Rita will never have the courage to tell her former boss off, to tell a criminal, “Listen, you're a criminal and you did this and you're guilty as charged,” and all these things but through these sequences of going in and out of music and reality, that's when you get to see, to hear, and feel her thoughts and her sensations. And it was also amazing with Jessi because there was so much rage in these women that felt trapped in this environment where they just didn't have control over what they wanted, ever.

GASCÓN: Personally, I hate musicals and that's a story for another day, but I hate singing the registers and in a voice that’s not mine. If I had a band maybe it would be like Duran Duran. Maybe my genre is more like rap — I feel like that's more aligned with me. But my favorite is when Manitas sings with Rita, and it's the first time that we watch them open up about who she wants to be and she cries. The first time that I sang it — I don't know why Jacques didn't keep it — I was crying and everything. I think maybe he didn't want all of that emotion. And then my second favorite song is the song I sing with Jessi, but it took a lot of work. I think for my songs, they probably had to record it 400 million times, bring in reinforcement — hire Shakira to do vibrato! [Laughs] But I think at the end of the day, it all came together really nicely…. If they ask me to do a musical again, I don't think I would be able to do it. If they ask me to record a heavy metal album, maybe — but a musical, no. Even if they decide that one of my songs is one of the most beautiful songs ever and they asked me to sing it at a gala, I'm going to tell them to have somebody else sing it. 

On meeting and working with Karla

GOMEZ: One of the first times I worked with her is when she was in the prosthetics and everything, so I felt like she was very much in character, and I respected that so much. But I was thinking to myself, I got to step up my game. She gave such a powerful performance as each character, but in every scene, you had to rise up to the occasion when you were with her. It was bold.

SALDAÑA: She was. This was a really important journey for her, and we felt that. Karla is this vivacious, lively Spanish woman that comes and just debates everything from the corner to the table to the chair. “Why this? Why are you putting it here?” Jacques loved her energy and how she brought from Emilia’s past and Emilia’s present. I met Karla a year before we started shooting — Emilia in Paris, and then I met Karla at the wrap party. Everything in between was Karla here and there, but it was Emilia or it was Emilia in the form of Manitas, and it was incredible. We signed up for this assignment with so much pride, and we were there for her, just holding that space for her. I encountered Manitas in different forms because all through the testing of makeup and prosthetics, I was always next to Karla and the team [in hair/makeup]. The year before, when I booked the movie, I flew to Paris to sit down with Jacques and with Karla, and Karla's hair's all down, and she has this beautiful little mini skirt, and all of a sudden her voice changes. We were improvising a scene in the van, and she goes through this whole monologue. I nearly died. I was speechless. And her eyes, her stare became dark. And then as soon as she went in, she totally came out. And I was like, that's Manitas. I knew then I was getting sort of a taste: This woman's a master in what she's doing, and she's going to come like thunder. And she did time and time again.

On watching the movie for the first time

GASCÓN: There's three different films: There's the film that I first saw when I received the script and read it, which is completely different than the film that we filmed, which is completely different than the film that I watched. I watched the film for the first time in Cannes and I was afraid that it wouldn't be the film that I expected. In the very first sequence, I saw the way that Jacques was able to present this, and I knew from that very first sequence that this film was going to make history. For a moment I forgot that I worked on this film. I haven't watched it since because the feeling that I got from it was so powerful. It was so emotional that I don't want that to change.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Listen to our full interview with Gascón, Saldaña, and Gomez — where they also talk about what they past several months have been like since winning the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, why they would've been disappointed to not be cast in this movie, their career highs, finding Manitas' look, and more — in the podcast below.

Get the latest awards season analysis and hear from the actors, creators, and more who are contenders this season on EW's The Awardist podcast, hosted by Gerrad Hall. Be sure to listen/subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, or via your own voice-controlled smart speaker.

Governors Awards

Quincy Jones, Richard Curtis, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and Juliet Taylor received honor Oscars from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. By Gerrad Hall

Colman Domingo perhaps summed it up best during his opening monologue at the 15th Governors Awards, held Sunday, Nov. 17 in Hollywood, when he said, "There is no great art without great artists."

This year's ceremony honored five individuals who've made enormous contributions to the film industry and with their philanthropic work: famed casting director Juliet Taylor (The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Terms of Endearment, Schindler's List, The Birdcage, 43 Woody Allen films); James Bond franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award; writer and director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, About Time), who received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic work; and songwriter, composer, and producer Quincy Jones, who died two weeks before the ceremony.

Four of Jones' seven children attended the Governors Awards to accept the Oscar on his behalf, following a funny and touching introduction from Jamie Foxx and a rousing performance by Jennifer Hudson. Jones' daughter, writer/producer/actress Rashida Jones, spoke to the crowd filling the Ovation Ballroom, many of whom were already in tears, and delivered what her father had completed of his speech before his death on Nov. 3.

"As a teenager growing up in Seattle, I would sit for hours in the theater and dream about composing for films. I could immediately recognize the styles of Alfred Newman at Fox and Victor Young at Paramount, to name a few," Rashida read in part of Quincy's own words. "From those beginnings to the present, I was always keenly aware of the enormous power that we possessed as filmmakers, that the art we created, the stories we told — if we were lucky — had a chance to move people in ways that they could never imagine, to make society and the world a more understanding and embracing place for us all to exist."

You can watch Rashida's full speech below.

Prior to the tears, though, there were lots of laughs (and crying from laughter) thanks to Hugh Grant, who presented Richard Curtis with his Oscar. Recalling how he was surprised to receive the "very good script" for Four Weddings and a Funeral, which Curtis wrote, Grant noted how that was just the beginning of their professional relationship.

"He also, of course, went on to direct his own films, and you would think that given that most of his films were about love, that [his] directorial style would have been gentle, soft, perhaps loving," Grant dryly said. "You would have been quite wrong. Forever etched on my heart are some of the notes he gave me, including 'And now do a funny one,' and 'Don't worry, we can cut 'round you,'" all to enormous laughter. "Anyway, while all this was going on, not content with saving the British film industry, he decided he also had to try and save the whole bloody world. Something I found annoying. Because there I would be in one of the lulls in my career — because of some flop or some arrest or whatever," he continued, as did the roar of laughter, "and I'd be frankly desperate for Richard's next film. And I'd be told, 'I'm sorry he's away for a year in Africa saving starving children.' I found that annoying and, frankly, selfish."

Grant's full speech is below, and you can check out more highlights from the 15th Governors Awards at the Oscars YouTube channel.

Oscar Nomination Predictions: Best Actor and Actress

Best Actress

While Pablo Larraín has directed three leading stars to Best Actress nominations for playing real-life cultural figures, his last effort, 2021's Spencer, barely crept over the threshold to score Kristen Stewart her first-ever acting nod. Angelina Jolie's turn as ill-fated opera singer Maria Callas in Maria has much larger backing behind it, with Netflix securing distribution rights to the title following its successful bow at the fall festivals. Jolie's superstar status also gives it a large dose of built-in star power, as she has two Oscars (one competitive, one honorary) already to her name. Mikey Madison's leading turn in Anora, however, occupies the other side of that coin, as the budding, rising star's central performance would mark her first nod at the top of a promising career. Honoring such ingenue status is an increasingly common thing in this category, which could also mark a historic nod for buzzy Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofia Gascón, who'd become the first trans woman to appear in this category if she's nominated. Other mainstays in well-received films include Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, Tilda Swinton in The Room Next Door (both Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz have reaped nods for work in Pedro Almodóvar's recent titles), and Babygirl's Nicole Kidman, who won Best Actress in Venice.

1. Mikey Madison, Anora
2. Angelina Jolie, Maria
3. Nicole Kidman, Babygirl
4. Karla Sofia Gascón, Emilia Pérez
5. Saoirse Ronan, The Outrun
   

Best Actor

Actors? Playing real-life historical figures? Or — gasp — playing gay? You don't say! While there are a few contenders who fall into this category this year, the work leading men bring to the table is no less exciting. Hot off his nomination for Rustin, Colman Domingo is eyeing up another strong bid for awards attention in Sing Sing, a project that actually debuted on the festival circuit last year, though goodwill for the film and its leading performance has carried it through to this year's competition. Other likely nominees hail from Best Picture contenders (Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody), and while Timothée Chalamet's transformation into Bob Dylan for James Mangold's A Complete Unknown feels right up the Academy's alley, its Dec. 25 release date feels too late for the film overall to make much of an impact on the race at large.

1. Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
2. Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
3. Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
4. Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
5. Daniel Craig, Queer
   

Check out Joey Nolfi's predictions for lead and supporting actor and actress here.

Oughta Get a Nod: Carol Kane, 'Between the Temples'

It’s only cliche because it is so agonizingly unchanging a fact: Interesting roles for women over 50 are incredibly hard to come by. Over 70? A wasteland of talent. This year, Carol Kane — the chimeric renaissance woman, eternal ingenue, muse to visionaries from Sidney Lumet to Cindy Sherman — rose from the rubble, a mirage made real, in Nathan Silver's exquisite Between the Temples. Kane imbues the character of Carla O'Connor, a headstrong bat mitzvah seeker at the precocious age of 72, with qualities more richly textured, deeply felt, and surprising than can be found in any other performance this year. She is both cautiously maternal and effervescently sexy in her romance with Jason Schwartzman, but as with Kane's best characters, she's irrepressibly independent, a portrait of a woman made free by her attachments, not despite them. —Ryan Coleman, Staff Writer

The Snub That Still Hurts: Rachel McAdams, 'Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret'

As Rachel McAdams plays her in the 2023 adaptation of Judy Blume’s book, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Barbara Simon has nearly as many emotions as her tween daughter, but leaves them understated. Barbara hurts and celebrates with Margaret, while also grappling with her new life as a stay-at-home mom. One shining example of McAdams’ deft handling of her character is the scene in which Margaret wants a bra. McAdams manages to almost smile — she’s aware that Margaret doesn’t physically need a bra yet — but she also knows that, mentally, she can’t go on without one. Barbara then treats Margaret like an adult after she puts the garment on and immediately wants to take it off. “Yeah, welcome to womanhood!” Barbara says sarcastically. It was one of the more nuanced performances in recent memory, every bit as winning as McAdams’ Oscar-nominated turn in 2016’s Spotlight. —Raechal Shewfelt, Staff Writer

Oscars Flashback