Zoe Saldaña has described her new movie Emilia Pérez as "brave" and "important" for its representation of trans people.
Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, Netflix's musical crime drama follows a lawyer who is kidnapped to help a Mexican cartel leader undergo gender-affirming surgery.
"This movie is audacious, provocative, brave, but one word that keeps resonating in my heart is that this movie is important. This story is important," Saldaña said in an exclusive interview with Digital Spy ahead of the film's release.
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Saldaña praised the work of her co-star Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular role in the movie.
"Jacques [Audiard] hired an incredible actress with a common journey, in that sense, to the characters that she's portraying," she said. "Karla knocked it out of the park with her performance, because she's really talented, and she definitely has a lot to share as an artist, but also as a woman, and her experience really matters.
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"We do understand that the conversation around trans lives is complex, and we're very proud that we're able to contribute with this movie to a conversation that needs a lot of hope. And that's what we feel that Emilia Perez is going to do."
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Talking to Digital Spy, Karla Sofía Gascón shared her views on trans performers.
"I am of the opinion that actors, when they choose this profession, it's because they love to represent a message or bring other people's lives to viewers," she started, defending that trans actors "should get these roles just like we would get jobs in real life".
"The problem is that there is a part of society that tries to make people who are 'different' — so to speak, because ultimately we are all different — disappear, or be relegated to the catacombs of the society we belong to," she added.
"What I do believe is that we are all people. We all have our virtues and our faults, and we have to put them into value as cinema feeds back from society and society feeds back from cinema as well.
"What we need to do is only normalise it. To not only have characters played by specific people who are trans. Just like in our normal life, where we could work on anything, but sometimes we are not allowed to simply because of fear and prejudice.
"We will change as society changes. And society will change accordingly to what we offer it."
Emilia Pérez is released on Netflix on November 13.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
