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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Zoe Saldaña’s Spanish-speaking role in ‘Emilia Pérez’ was a
long time coming, says the star
By Dan Heching, CNN
Updated:
4:14 PM EST, Sat November 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Zoe Saldaña has already given us so much – emotionally pivotal
characters in three , on top of a long list of TV and movie credits –
her role in Netflix’s genre-busting new thriller/musical hybrid
“Emilia Pérez” feels like icing on a very rich cake.
The “Avatar” star acts, sings and even raps in “Pérez,” and
does it all in Spanish, her first major role in the language. Saldaña
– whose father was from the Dominican Republic and mother is Puerto
Rican – told in an interview published this week that the opportunity
to use her bilingual fluency “never really came” before now.
“Either the project just wasn’t the right fit for me or an
Afro-Caribbean Latina wasn’t the right fit for the project,” she
said.
“It’s a combination of a director’s vision, which you want to be
respectful of and honor, and the other side, colonialism and colorism,
which is rampant in Latin America,” Saldaña added. “I was very
much like, ‘Well, that’s okay, I’m going to dance to the beat of
my own drum and I’ll go to space and I’ll be green and I’ll be
blue (in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Avatar” films,
respectively) and I’ll do all those things.’ Then 15 years go by,
and I’m yearning for that reconnection.”
“Emilia Pérez,” directed by Jacques Audiard and based on the 2018
novel “Écoute” by Boris Razon, opens with Saldaña’s Rita, an
overworked and underappreciated lawyer in Mexico who wins a case and
becomes ensnared in a cartel boss’s dealings.
The opening number alone is enough to indicate that “Pérez” is
unlike any movie musical to come before it, and it’s led by Saldaña,
in elaborate sequences that weave in and out of reality and involve
teams of supporting players and backup dancers.
In the film, the menacing cartel boss named Manitas enlists Rita’s
help with a secret he has long held private – his desire to
transition to becoming a woman. Portrayed by Karla Sofía Gascón,
Manitas’ journey to becoming Emilia Pérez is the heart of the movie,
shepherded by Saldaña’s Rita and set against the struggles of
Manitas’ uninformed and disillusioned wife Jessi (Selena Gomez).
The trio of actresses, along with Adriana Paz, who plays Emilia’s
love interest in the second half of the film, won the best actress
prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Saldaña credited casting directors as some of the women in Hollywood
who have supported her professionally. She called them “amazing women
who are always finding these diamonds in the rough” in her interview
with Elle.
“Where would I have been if it weren’t for these women?” Saldaña
asked, explaining how specific and fastidious they were in helping her
put her best foot forward in taped auditions.
“There were directors and producers who were like, ‘We want to go
traditional, I don’t think she’s right for the part.’ And they
would be like, ‘No, no, you need to watch her.’”
“Emilia Pérez” is streaming now on Netflix.
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