[Editor’s Note: The following interview contains a spoiler for Emilia Pérez]

The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with
Emilia Pérez
star Édgar Ramírez.
In the movie, Ramírez plays Gustavo Brun, the lover of Selena Gomez’s Jessi.
During this interview, Ramírez talks about finding his character through Gomez’s raw performance, embracing director Jacques Audiard’s evolving vision for the film, and the musical number he wasn’t originally in.

Jacques Audiard’s musical drama Emilia Pérez is led by an ensemble of powerful female forces. The quartet of award-winning powerhouses is headlined by Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the title role in the film and includes Grammy-winner Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, and Adriana Paz. To round out this stacked cast, Édgar Ramírez co-stars as Gustavo Brun, a key player in this harrowing love story.

In a film driven by the performances of women, Ramírez found himself in awe of his co-stars, especially playing opposite Gomez as Jessi. In the movie, Ramírez’s Gustavo is Jessi’s lover, and she only agrees to return to Mexico with Emilia’s children if she can reunite with him. Their torrid affair leads to serious consequences, and, in this one-on-one with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Ramírez shares a surprising fact about that final scene.

During their conversation, Ramírez also discusses working with filmmakers’ visions and, in particular, trusting Audiard’s direction on the “bones of this script” as the movie evolved throughout production. He talks about working closely with Gomez on-set, finding his character through her, and the musical number he wasn’t originally meant to be a part of. You can watch the full interview in the video above or read the transcript below.

‘Emilia Pérez’ Was “Evolving and Changing Constantly Until the End”
“I just wanted to be on the journey and discover it along with him.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: One thing I absolutely love about this movie is that it is impossible to put it into just one genre, but I know sometimes that can mean it’s a challenge to wrap your head around it at the beginning when you only have a script and a script alone. When you first signed on, what were some of your biggest burning questions for Jacques in terms of figuring out what he wanted this to look and feel like?

ÉDGAR RAMÍREZ: Quite honestly, I am very director-driven, and I really trust and subscribe to my director’s vision. Someone like Jacques Audiard, he’s a maestro. So, when I read the script, it was basically in the bones. The script was basically a general guideline of what we were potentially going to do, so he kept evolving and changing constantly until the very end. So, I thought that it would be kind of a waste of energy trying to anticipate what the movie was gonna be. I just wanted to be on the journey and discover it along with him and the amazing actresses I had the privilege to work with.

So, especially my character, without revealing too much, is an extreme happening. It’s kind of like a catalyst, so the way I thought that I should approach this character was just to be very present and almost like a contact sport — be there ready to play with all the different elements that were being thrown at us.

Édgar Ramírez Revisits Working with Selena Gomez
“She’s a very, very courageous actress. She’s very raw, very present.”
Image via Netflix

I was just talking to another actor who explained to me that one of the greatest joys is starting a new project and feeling like you’re on unstable ground, but then having that moment when you know you have just found your character. Did you have that here, and if so, with what scene?

RAMÍREZ: I did. I’ve said this before: I definitely found my character in Selena’s eyes — her abandon, her courage. She’s a very, very courageous actress. She’s very raw, very present. She doesn’t pull back. She goes completely in, and that’s where I found it. It was in that space that we were able to create. The chemistry that we had is what allowed me to really connect and find my character.

The final scene of the movie was actually, ironically, the first scene that we ever shot together. So, it was almost like, “Hi, nice to meet you. Boom. Let’s jump together off that cliff.” And the fact that we were able to do it so quickly, so fluidly, and so organically, it was an amazing, amazing joy.

Filming out of sequence will always fascinate me, and I know most films do.

RAMÍREZ: Absolutely. I think that Selena and I met three days before we had dinner all together, and then, “Hi, nice to meet you,” and then that was the first scene. But we felt that. So, we were very lucky to be able to have that instant chemistry and especially that instant trust. So, very quickly, we became each other’s safety net for the intensity of those things. Then, it was magical.

Image via Netflix

I’ll add a little more to your collaboration with her because, obviously, she’s accomplished so much. The whole world knows how incredibly talented she is so I imagine you go into working with her with some expectations. Can you tell me a little bit about how maybe she exceeded those expectations?

RAMÍREZ: Absolutely. She’s a consumed artist, and again, she’s so courageous. She reminds me of those amazing actresses from the ‘70s on both sides of the Atlantic, from the American Golden Era of cinema in the ‘70s. That kind of openness and an ability to be really present and really invested, and not, as I said before, saving anything, just putting everything on the grill, so to speak. That is fascinating and delicious. It’s amazing — very sensorial. We have that luck, and I’m very grateful for that.

Zoe Saldaña Is a “Blade” in ‘Emilia Pérez’
“El Mal” stopped Ramírez in his tracks on set.
Image via Cannes Film Festival

I love forcing collaborators to give each other flowers. Can you recall a time on set when you saw someone either in the cast or maybe behind the scenes do something, and it made you go, “My god, that’s incredible, and I’m so proud of you right now?”

RAMÍREZ: I remember that one day I came in for some makeup tests, and Zoe was doing one of her numbers — I think it was “El Mal.” When I saw that … She is a blade . I mean, her body becomes a knife. It’s a blade. It’s the sharpest blade. They said action, and I hadn’t seen the choreography because I was not supposed to be part of any musical number and then I ended up being part of “Mi Camino,” which is a beautiful, very pleasant surprise that also sprang from the chemistry that we locally developed. Jacques saw it and then decided, “Edgar, in two weeks, you are rehearsing to start to do the musical number with Selena.” But when I saw Zoe doing that, I said, “Oh my god, I’m so lucky to be part of this project.” Zoe and I have been friends for a long time, and to see my friend being able to flex every artistic muscle singing, acting, and dancing, going back to her roots as a dancer in such a magnificent way, it was incredible to be behind the monitor next to Jacques and seeing that. It was a real beauty because, again, it’s like she was caught in the air. She was really like a blade, and that made me very proud.

4:38 Related Zoe Saldaña Was Stunned by Selena Gomez’s ‘Emilia Pérez’ Transformation “This woman is filled with abandonment and recklessness and rage.”

What a beautiful way to describe it. Again, congratulations on the movie. I love when I can’t quite put into words what a film is. That means it’s extra special and one-of-a-kind, and that’s what you have here.

RAMÍREZ: That’s what art is supposed to do, right? To leave us speechless.

Emilia Pérez releases on Netflix in the US on November 13.

In Mexico, a lawyer receives an unexpected offer to help a feared cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamed of being.Director Jacques Audiard Cast Karla Sofía Gascón , Zoe Saldana , Selena Gomez , Adriana Paz , Edgar Ramirez , Mark Ivanir , Eduardo Aladro , Emiliano Edmundo Hasan Jalil , James Gerard , Eric Geynes , Agathe Bokja , Chun-Ting Lin , Stéphane Ly-Cuong , Line Phé , Pascal Toussirot , Karla Lazo Runtime 130 Minutes Writers Jacques Audiard , Thomas Bidegain , Léa Mysius Expand

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