Emilia Pérez, the genre-defying crime musical about a transgender cartel leader, is Netflix’s leading Oscar contender – but even its actors acknowledge that the ‘risky’ film could have ended up a crazy ‘mess’.
Starring Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, and from acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez charmed audiences at Cannes earlier this year.
Initially relying on its international star power of Saldaña, 46, and Gomez, 32, for oomph – as well as Audiard’s prize-winning pedigree (Palme D’Or and Bafta film awards, among others), its leading ladies were awarded a joint best actress gong as well as the movie earning the Jury Prize at the French film festival.
Since then, it has been snapped up by Netflix for US and UK distribution, and been named France’s official Oscar entry for best international feature – despite being set in Mexico and predominantly in Spanish.
Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz complete the film’s group of four main actresses, with Gascón in the titular role of Pérez, initially known as fearsome cartel leader Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte, who enlists Rita (Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can live authentically as her true self.
Emilia Pérez swings wildly between gritty and violent drama and comedy crime caper during its sweeping narrative, which also includes original songs penned by Camille and musical dance numbers.
To give a taste of its unexpectedness, it involves a medical-themed song that has a chorus with the lyrics ‘Vaginoplasty! Rhinoplasty!’ as the doctor bursts into song mid-consultation, as you do.
Its cast and director attended the BFI London Film Festival on Friday night to support its inclusion in the programme, discussing the response it’s had from audiences so far.
‘Hopefully it compels conversation and hopefully people can go into this with an open heart and an open mind and just accept it for what it is,’ Gomez told Metro on the red carpet of the avant-garde movie.
‘I think that’s something – that if you blindly go into this, just enjoy the ride!’
Actress Paz, 44, who plays Epifanía, a woman who befriends both Rita and Emilia, was open about how confused the script initially made her – and the fears over how such a ‘risky’ movie may land.
‘I thought, “This is crazy! What is this?”,’ she admitted. ‘I really didn’t understand some of the scenes until I saw the movie, and I was like, “Oh my God! That was great!”
‘This was a very risky project to make. It could be a mess. But it wasn’t, because it’s Jacques Audiard – and not just him. [Choreographer] Damien Jalet, [songwriter] Camille, [composer] Clément Ducol and a lot of people that are working on it made it the movie that it is.’
It’s clearly had a huge impact personally on its actresses too, with Selena – who plays Manitas’ oblivious wife Jessi Del Monte, and mother to their kids.
Édgar Ramirez is her dangerous onscreen boyfriend, Gustavo Brun.
She called the award-winning reception at Cannes ‘very sweet and overwhelming’.
‘At the same time, I’m just so grateful that I believed in myself enough to do this part. I’ve wanted to work with Jacques for years and I never thought I would. So just to be here and knowing that I earned it – all I can say is it makes me feel good.’
Gascón, 52, made history as the first openly trans actor to win a major prize at Cannes, and she takes on the roles of both Emilia and Manitas, insisting that she would draw on her own personal experience and play her part pre-transition as well.
‘I’m really fortunate to have this opportunity to play this amazing role and this challenge for a lot of actors and actresses,’ the star said to Metro, calling her part ‘a gift for me that life and Jacques gave’.
She’s also conscious of how her highly praised inclusion in the movie is a positive message for other queer performers and people.
‘I think that Emilia Pérez has the most important message in the world that we can change – but for better. And seeing it on the screen with me [in it], this message is a gift for a lot of people,’ she added.
For Paz, she’s also confident that Emilia Pérez’s success so far is because of its honesty and the magnitude of its key messages.
‘It’s so honest, and we’re talking about important matters. It’s beyond violence – it’s much more than that. Much more than [just being about] a drug dealer or a transgender [person] – it’s about love and finding who you really are, and I think that resonates in people’s hearts,’ she insisted.
‘And that’s more powerful than languages and borders,’ Paz added before apologising for becoming tearful.
‘Sorry, it always happens with his movie – we always finish [interviews] crying!’
After its triumphant premiere at Cannes, Emilia Pérez is sitting pretty on largely positively reviews and an impressive 86% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Total Film brands it ‘a miraculous movie’ in a 5/5 review, while The Times called it ‘a musical for our time indeed’ in another five-star reaction.
‘If Sergio Leone were alive and making musicals, he might have engineered something this grand and sweeping,’ muses the Wall Street Journal, while the Daily Beast observes: ‘Emilia Pérez wins you over by being unabashedly sincere. It takes its mission in all of its various genres—musical, crime thriller, and soap opera—seriously thanks to the committed performances and Audiard’s expressive direction.’
However, there has been some disagreement among those who have seen it so far, with Little White Lies criticising the plot as ‘all kinds of idiotic, never wanting to justify itself as outwardly kitsch melodrama, but never coherent or serious enough to make any of its emotion transcend the soap operatic’.
IndieWire also claims the film is ‘stylistically unforgettable while missing the crucial element that makes any movie musical work: Actually good, memorable songs’.
Emilia Pérez premiered at Cannes Film Festival before screening at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11. It’s released in UK cinemas on October 25 before hitting Netflix on November 13.
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