Emilia Pérez: Selena Gomez ‘shines’ in Oscar-tipped musical

When Emilia Pérez premiered earlier this 12 months, it grew to become one of many breakout hits of the Cannes Film Festival, the place its 4 lead stars collectively received finest actress.

On Wednesday, the Spanish-language musical is launched worldwide on Netflix because the movie awards race continues to warmth up forward of the Oscars in March.

Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz launched the film on the London Film Festival final month, the place it continued to construct its momentum.

Emilia Pérez follows a harmful Mexican Cartel chief (performed by Gascón), who asks a high-powered lawyer named Rita (Saldaña) to assist him faux his personal dying.

But the rationale he desires to retire and disappear from the world of crime is not what you may anticipate – the drug baron desires to vary gender and stay a brand new life as a girl.

The remainder of the movie focuses on 4 ladies, together with the newly-transitioned Emilia Pérez, as they every pursue their very own model of happiness in modern-day Mexico.

Pérez is portrayed by Spanish trans actress Gascón, who has been tipped as a attainable finest actress contender within the forthcoming awards race.

French director Jacques Audiard got here up with the thought for the movie after studying a chapter in Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute a few drug lord who modifications identification.

Audiard went one step additional for the movie, and made it a narrative of fixing gender.

“I was less interested in a change of identity to evade competitor drug barons, and more interested in the change of identity for the sake of the person she was and is,” the director tells BBC News. “I used to be extra previously and what led to that transition.”

The role required someone very specific – a trans actress, who was a Spanish speaker, who could also sing and dance.

Recalling the casting process, Gascón explains: “I was contacted when I was in Mexico by a production team, and was told ‘We need an actress as crazy as you – you’re the only one who can do this role, but you need to learn five songs for tomorrow!’

“And I was like ‘OK, let’s record the whole album and we’ll go on tour as soon as you want!’” she jokes. “But I did say, ‘this is going to be difficult, I’m not a singer’. But the team in the film, they worked with me incredibly, they really helped me with all the songs and made it so that we could do the best work possible.”

Asked about Gascón’s casting, Audiard adds simply: “Without her, there would be no film.”

Interestingly, Gascón campaigned to play both the male and female roles – in other words, the character both before and after transition.

Audiard had originally intended for a different actor to play the male drug lord Manitas, because, the director explains, he was “uncomfortable asking [Gascón] to revisit something she was moving away from”.

But, Gascón recalled: “I said to Jacques, I want to play this role in the complete arc, because for me it is important to do the full part. It wouldn’t be the same film if another actor played [Manitas].”

That meant using effects and make-up such as a fake beard, so she could play the drug baron in the first section of the musical.

“This film is this film because the same actress played the complete performance,” Gascón continues. “It’s that kind of role you have once in your life and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to play this.”

The ongoing debate about whether actors should have lived experience of characters they play is complex, and Gascón herself says: “I prefer that all actors have the full opportunities. When you chose this career, it’s because you want to express another life that’s not like your life.

“But,” she continues, “obviously when you are closer to the role of the character, it’s better. In this case, I think it’s beautiful, because I give all of myself to this role.”

Gascón has been described as a “wonderful discovery” by the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, who said she gives “a magnificent performance”.

“The warmth, the joyous self-realisation, the complexity and authenticity… that illuminate her characterisation no doubt owe much to the parallels in the Spanish star’s life – in her personal phrases, she was an actor earlier than changing into an actress, a father earlier than changing into a mom.”

Gomez plays the drug lord’s wife, who is kept in the dark about her former lover’s new identity, while Paz portrays Emilia’s new romantic interest after transitioning.

Reviews of Emilia Pérez, which is released on Netflix next month, have been generally positive so far.

“It’s a wild, gritty, glitter-soaked journey that defies conference and classification,” said Entertainment Weekly’s Maureen Lee Lenker.

She praised the film’s performances, commenting: “Selena Gomez is a welcome shock, shedding any remaining hints of her Disney Channel origins in her portrayal of a hard-loving spouse of a narco.

“The film’s climax in particular allows Gomez to shine as a dramatic actress in new ways. She conveys heartache and anguish through a tortured physicality that propels her into the unpredictable state of a woman on the verge of something dangerous.”

Asked by the BBC’s Graham Norton if it was snug going again to the world of singing and dancing for the musical, Gomez stated: “No, because this was completely different.

“It was intricate dance strikes I by no means knew my physique may do, and it was additionally me taking part in a personality so if something I attempted to keep away from what I used to be snug with.”

The Telegraph’s Tim Robey described the movie as “amazingly assured – it’s intelligent, earnest, ridiculous, realizing, forceful and completely bonkers”, whereas Hoai-Tran Bui of Inverse said it was “an emotionally fulfilling triumph”.

Not all critics were as enthusiastic about the film, however.

“Emilia Pérez was initially meant to be an opera, which maybe partly explains its saccharine sentimentality, repetitive lyrics, and diverging story branches. But that doesn’t excuse its virtually random, whiplash-inducing tonal pivots,” said Slant’s Kyle Turner.

However, Lauren Bradshaw of Fangirl Freakout said: “Emilia Pérez is an impressive, genre-bending thrill journey that transcends the standard film assemble, respiration a recent burst of pleasure into the best way we take into consideration movie.”

As an actress, Gomez is best known for starring in Only Murders in the Building, but also has a successful singing career with hits including Back To You, Wolves and Love You Like a Love Song.

Her co-star Saldaña, meanwhile, has starred in a large number of blockbusters in the last two decades, with roles in the Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises.

It remains to be seen whether Emilia Pérez could be a big awards player, but Academy voters may see an opportunity to recognise Saldaña’s box office success via this more critically acclaimed work.

Their co-star Adriana Paz is a Mexican actress whose credits include Not Forgotten, Hilda and La Caridad, while Gascón also had a successful acting career before transitioning in 2018.

Emilia Pérez has already been selected as France’s entry for the best international feature category at the Oscars, which take place in March.

But despite the film’s awards traction, Paz tells BBC News: “I never think about that, really. I get into a project because I’m interested in the topic, character, director or actors, you do it because it really matters to you.”

She adds that the attention in recent months is unlike anything she’s experienced in her career. “It’s been lots,” she says, “as a result of I’ve been working in Spain and have an extended profession in Mexico, and folks have a recognition of my work, however not like [it’s been] since Cannes.

“In my country they feel very proud of me, and there was a lot of people that didn’t know about my work, and now thanks to Emilia they are getting to know my work… and they see ‘we feel so proud as Mexicans that you won this award.'”

After the success of Emilia Perez, Paz says she would “love to” seem in additional musicals in future, and loves singing.

But Gascón has a barely completely different take. “I don’t like musicals!” she laughs, including that she hopes casting administrators aren’t too smitten by her efficiency.

“I don’t like to sing, I don’t want to be compared to Shakira or something like that, and I don’t like dancing, so please don’t call me!”