After a highly successful stint on the festival circuit and a short but fruitful theatrical run, Emilia Pérez arrives on Netflix on November 13th. Part musical and part crime thriller, the genre-defying project was written and directed by visionary auteur Jacques Audiard. Karla Sofía Gascón plays the titular protagonist, who begins the film as Manitas, a cartel leader feared throughout Mexico who hopes to leave the blood-soaked life of a drug trafficker after transitioning.
The brilliant but disgruntled lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldaña) becomes Emilia’s confidante in this process, inspiring and facilitating a new leaf that goes far beyond sexual reassignment surgery. Together, Emilia and Rita begin a project to recover the remains of those who fell victim to cartel violence, while Emilia tries to reconnect with her ex-wife Jessi (Selena Gomez showing a new and exciting side to her talent) and undisclosed children. . your identity. The narrative is punctuated and animated by musical numbers, but the end result is unlike any musical in recent years.
TelaRant interviewed Saldaña & Gomez about the shock to the system Emilia Pérez was, how the songs in the musical film differed from other projects of the genre and why the relationship between Rita and Emilia was so understandable outside of the extreme circumstances of the story.
Emilia Pérez was an experience unlike any other for Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez
“I felt like I could reconnect with a part of myself that had been buried in all my other work.”
Screen Rant: Zoe, this film is a fascinating experience on every level, and I can’t help but wonder how it was introduced to you. How did Jacques Audiard describe it?
Zoe Saldaña: It was a conversation that lasted at least an hour and a half on Zoom because it’s not just something that can be explained in two sentences, and it was Jacues who said it. Jacques is a very eloquent, intelligent and intellectual man, so when he is speaking, I tend to only understand half of what he is saying because he uses complicated words and is very sophisticated. But I felt it; I felt like I was special.
Screen Rant: Selena, Jessi is such an interesting character with so many hidden layers, and it’s the first time I’ve heard you speak mostly Spanish for a role. What was that experience like for you? How did you get into it?
Selena Gomez: Wonderful. I think it was something I always wanted to do and was dying to do, and it was beyond myself. I was very humbled. I felt like I could reconnect with a part of myself that I feel has been buried in all my other work. So that was really a special moment for me.
Emilia Pérez’s musical numbers deal with each character’s state of mind
“…It was never about hitting that note.”
Screen Rant: None of you are strangers to music, but the musical numbers in this film are so unique because they’re really about expressing emotions rather than singing notes. How did each of you approach this aspect?
Zoe Saldaña: I think it was understanding the state of mind they were in. And you’re right, it was never about hitting that note. [Selena] said something in one of the Q&As that you loved and that was so raw… and that was exactly it.
Yes, we recorded it in the studio, but Jacques always told us, “I want to film the live version when we’re filming on set because I believe we’re going to capture something really special.” Once you’ve gone through the journey of a scene and are in your character’s emotional state, it sets the tone of your voice. We were really surprising ourselves.
Selena Gomez: Yes, beautiful. It was a wonderful experience.
Screen Rant: You had an extra special karaoke scene with Edgar Ramirez in which he said he wasn’t originally going to sing. How did that happen and how did you guys really bring that chemistry together?
Selena Gomez: It was really fun because we kind of improvised, so it was really cute. We were pretending to sing karaoke, and then he said, “We want to do a live show.” [Edgar] I started singing to myself, and it was awkward, cute, romantic, and sexy. It was fun.
Screen Rant: Obviously, one of the biggest relationships in the film is yours with Emilia. Can you talk about working with Karla and how they changed each other’s lives so much?
Zoe Saldaña: Jacques spoke at the conference today about the fact that this film has so many mixed feelings coming together; colliding together. I feel like Rita and Emilia are polar opposites. Emilia is a rule breaker and Rita is a rule maker. Rita is overcome by fear and Emilia is inflamed by adventure and life, but they need each other.
Without Rita, Emilia would never have been able to repeatedly accomplish what was so important to her. And Rita needed to be around someone like Emilia – someone bold and not audacious and provocative – to really light a fire in her and make her believe that she deserved love and family. Understanding this relationship immediately reminded me of so many women I grew up with, [whom I] I wanted to be like and I wanted to be close. And me too; all things that I kind of want to work on myself.
More about Emilia Pérez (2024)
From renegade author Jacques Audiard comes Emilia Pérez, an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each in search of their own happiness. Fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an underappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as herself. Written and directed by Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), the Cannes-winning double feature also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Édgar Ramírez.
Check out our other interviews with Emilia Pérez here:
Source: Rant Plus Screen