In Emilia Pérez, Karla Sofia Gascón takes on one of the most complex roles imaginable — that of a feared cartel boss, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, who transitions into a new life as the woman who gives the film its name.

But that’s not the complex part. Emilia tries to undo some of the substantial harm she did as a cartel boss by becoming a philanthropist who locates the remains of people who have been killed by cartels. Emilia is the woman she has always dreamed of being. 

Also? For all the drama, it’s also a comedy. And a musical. Which meant Gascón had to sing, as both Manitas and Emilia.

The film asks questions about identity that go far beyond gender identity. Can Emilia really become a new person? And have a new life? 

Gascón pressed director Jacques Audiard on Emilia’s reasons for wanting to transition before agreeing to accept the role.

“Does Manitas just want to run away from justice, or is it that he is trying to become their true self?” Gascón asked. 

Audiard wrote the screenplay with collaborators Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi, and Léa Mysius, based on a single chapter in journalist and author Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute. 

The chapter is about transitioning, but Gascón, herself a trans woman, felt the script’s first draft needed to better explain who Emilia is.

“It would have been a joke if we did not make their motives clear,” Gascón tells MovieMaker. 

“It would have been a big mistake, but I think we made the message clear. The comments and the feedback we have received makes it seem like there is no doubt about it.” 

Even as Emilia tries to right wrongs, one uncovered body at a time, her history is unchanged. 

And the jealous, controlling, and violent person she was before always threatens to surface.

Emilia Pérez and the Two Ways to Make Movies

Selena Gomez as Jessi in Emilia Pérez. Photo Credit: Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA © 2024.

In May, all four leads in Emilia Pérez —  Gascón, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz — shared the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Gascón became the first trans woman to win the award. 

Before her Cannes win, Gascón had a long career in Spanish and Latin American film and TV. She starred in the Telemundo series El señor de los cielos in 2014, when her season won the first International Emmy Award for a foreign-language program. 

Gascón also co-starred in 2013’s We Are the Nobles, the blockbuster Mexican film about three spoiled children who are cut off from their family fortune and forced to get jobs.

“In the words of The Noble Family’s director Gaz Alazraki, there are two ways to make a film: you can shoot a film for festivals or you can shoot a movie to make money,” she says. 

“It is rare for both to happen, but when it does, it is wonderful. The Noble Family really connected with the audience and then it took off.”

Emilia Pérez did very well with film festivals: Besides Cannes, it was programmed for the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, among others. But Gascón hopes its streaming on Netflix means it will resonate far beyond the festival circuit. 

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“I actually want the public to see it because I cannot tell people what to feel or what to think. I think it’s creating a precedent in the history of cinema because Emilia Pérez transcends the screen,” she says. 

“It has an important message that is for a wider audience.”

Karla Sofia Gascón on Song and Dance

Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro in Emilia Pérez. Photo Credit: Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA © 2024.

Saldaña plays Rita, an overqualified and undervalued lawyer who goes from representing criminals to helping Emilia transition and develop the non-profit. 

Saldaña also does much of the dancing and singing in the movie. But that still left plenty of singing and dancing for Gascón, who found it especially challenging.

“You cannot sing the same song 45 times and they all sound great,” she says. “It was challenging for me because I’m not a singer and I had to sing in two different voices with two different registers.”

One register belongs to Manitas, and the other to Emilia. 

To master the songs, Gascón recorded them in a studio before the shoot, then live on set, and again after the shoot concluded. 

She’s had experience dubbing movies for international distribution, so the re-recording process came naturally. 

“I actually love being able to create two different voices and changing those voices,” she says. “That was really beautiful.”

The section of Emilia Pérez in which Gascón plays Manitas marks her first time playing a male-presenting character since she transitioned in real life

Gascón wants to play characters who are as far away as possible from her, and Manitas fit the bill.

“Yes, it’s the first time, and I think it’s not the last. Playing Manitas was joy,” she says. “It was fun to sit in the makeup chair and have the prosthetics applied.

“I understand that for other trans people, it would be hard to play a character that looks like they were before. But for me, it wasn’t hard. It was fun.”

Emilia Pérez is now streaming on Netflix.

Main image: Emilia Pérez. Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez in Emilia Pérez. Photo credit: Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA © 2024.