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Zoe Saldaña had dreamed of working with Jacques Audiard when she learned he was making Emilia Pérez—his Spanish language female-led dramedy musical. Audiard had initially set out to cast women in their early 20s, before realizing the roles in his film required actors with more lived experience. He lit upon Saldaña to play Rita, an underappreciated Mexico City lawyer who is enlisted by a cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) to help them safely transition into a new and authentic life. Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz also star, and at Cannes where the film premiered, the four women shared the Best Actress award. Now, in the wake of her Golden Globe nomination alongside Gascon, who is the first trans actress ever to be nominated for Lead Actress in a film, Saldaña describes her joy in being part of a project that is on “the right side of history” and what it meant to her to embrace her singing and dancing skills, especially in her first language.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on the Golden Globes nomination.
ZOE SALDAÑA: Thank you so much. It’s a wonderful gift—just a warm reception and the support that we continue to get—it’s wonderful.
DEADLINE: Before this film even came into view, you had made a list of directors that you wanted to work with and Audiard was on that list. What prompted you to make that list?
SALDAÑA: Well, I mean I think it’s something that agents at certain agencies do with their clients and in ways to get to know their clients better and even if they’ve been working with their clients for years is just to understand where the client, the artist wants to go, what kind of work the artist wants to do. And I created this small list. I feel like every actor that has an agent will probably understand this and sometimes that list can get really like, “Oh God, they just want me to make this list. And then we’re not going to really get anything done.” But I have these kick-ass agents at CAA that are very passionate about the clients that they represent and they called me as soon as they finished their meeting with Jacques Audiard, knowing that he’s one of my top directors to work with, and the next project that he was doing, which was called Emilia Pérez, it was a character that they felt that I was perfect for. And when you receive a call like that, you kind of have an out-of-body experience, you know? I think I was taking one of my children to a doctor appointment when I received the call and I remember feeling, oh my god, is this really real? Jacques Audiard is doing a movie that I may be right for? What?
DEADLINE: You’ve said that Spanish was your first language at home. What did it feel like to speak Spanish while acting and singing?
SALDAÑA: I don’t know if you have friends that where English is not their first language and then all of a sudden you see them code switch, all of a sudden, they kind of come to life. Right?
DEADLINE: Yes.
SALDAÑA: When they connect with someone at a party or in the street that speaks their language, they kind of come to life and you’re like, oh, I didn’t see that side of you. That’s exactly me. But obviously I was born here in the States and I grew up partially in Latin America and in New York. So I don’t necessarily live consciously knowing that I’m code switching. It’s just something that you naturally do when you’re a daughter of immigrants. But after a while you kind of wish that you didn’t have to leave so many parts of you in order for you to jump to the other side, you know? So being able to play a character like Rita in an all-Spanish movie meant that I was able to utilize more parts of my identity into my craft. So that was extremely rewarding to rediscover all that I can do when I’m given the ability to be more myself, to explore more. It reminded me of the kind of artist that I am and who I choose to be, and I just wish more of that in the future for myself.
DEADLINE: You begin Emilia Pérez as this protagonist figure Rita, and then Emilia comes in. There are, as you say, four great female roles here. None of these women are getting together to talk about their ex-husbands, trying to win back a man, they’re not going to a wedding or competing over someone, you know? It’s so much more about the women and their interior lives. What did it mean to you to be part of a film that showcases women just for themselves, not how they relate to men?
SALDAÑA: In that sense, it felt to me like an accurate portrayal. I, as a woman, and all the women around me are more than daughters and wives and mothers. They are themselves. And so, I really love when writers and filmmakers are able to just create a person, a full person, and then give it a gender. You know what I mean? I don’t know if you’re aware, but these characters were male [Emilia Pérez is based on Audiard’s opera of the same name, which was loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s novel Écoute]. Rita was a male. He was an Argentine lawyer who was 25. And then as the story continued to grow for Jacques, it revealed itself to Jacques, and I’m so happy that he was just present enough to listen and to understand his own story and where it needed to go, and then assigned the right gender to these characters that needed them. And I really commend him for that. I think that I really want to work with filmmakers that write characters like that where a woman or a man can play that character because then and only then will we be giving women the better opportunities to be a part of great stories.
DEADLINE: Jacques told me about his process of auditioning women on the younger end and then realizing, no, that’s not right, these are women that have lived and they know themselves. And I thought that was a really interesting, like you say, he was very open to the process of change and letting it be what it needed to be.
SALDAÑA: I love that. I love when you create a story and you get totally lost in it and the story is dictating where it wants to go. I think it’s incredible when a storyteller has the capacity to step aside and not get in his own way or her way. You know, and I love that. I love that the most about Jacques Audiard.
DEADLINE: I’m a little bit obsessed with your CIA agent character Joe in Taylor Sheridan’s show Special Ops: Lioness, which you also produce. I’ve been watching her and taking notes on how to handle it when men think they can push you around. Tell me about that character and how you drew the strength and power to inhabit her?
SALDAÑA: Well, that’s another character that is very aligned with the kind of female characters that I like to play. She doesn’t fight men for the sake of fighting men. Her big battle isn’t to get men out of her way. And I love the fact that Taylor Sheridan didn’t make these women waste time in always constantly putting men in their place and he didn’t create one-dimensional male roles around these women as well. So I really appreciate that because if that weren’t the case, I don’t think I would’ve been able to play anything in Lioness. Joe’s a Patriot. She believes in what she’s doing and she takes her responsibility very well of responding for human lives, of answering for human lives. And I think that she’s a perfectionist. So all of these traits in Joe is what drew me to her, but I think that deep, deep down, she’s aware of her own mortality and it’s freaking her out because she’s not as fast as she used to be and she’s not as fearless as she used to be. She’s quite fearful now of dying because she cares so much about her family and she’s worried that she may not be in a clear mind to make wise decisions and keep people safe. I like the humanity in her, and I like the way that she goes out of her way to conceal that. And I like also that Taylor wrote a love story for her that you would expect someone that is in such a demanding line of work would have a life that is falling apart at all times, and he chooses for Neal [Dave Annable] and Joe to make it work. And I think that’s beautiful because I know that there are people that are making it work every day regardless of what they do at work. Most importantly, I just wanted to tell a story of women that serve. I think that these are women that truly exist and they contribute to keeping nations safe, and yet we don’t really tell enough stories of them. And I think it’s time that we do. But I don’t feed into the political inclines that people believe Lioness to have. Whether it’s blue or it’s red or it’s conservative or non-conservative, that’s not my appeal at all as an artist. I just saw a female character that I felt challenged enough to play and a cast that I’m very proud to be working with, and a show runner that is really badass and tells it like it is. I may not agree with him at all times, but I certainly respect his work.
DEADLINE: You’re producing more these days, including on Lioness (Saldaña produces via Cinestar, the production company she founded with her two sisters, Cisely and Mariel). What projects are you looking toward?
SALDAÑA: I think just female-driven subjects. You know, I just want to see women tell stories and tell their stories and go through experiences, and I want to be able to capture those experiences. I’m more drawn to a desire to connect with women from all over the world, from all walks of life and all experiences now more than ever. And I think Emilia Pérez was a testament to that. What drew me to this project, besides Jacques Audiard, were these four women in Emilia Pérez. These women are versatile. These women are familiar. They feel so kindred to me. I felt so much compassion for them. I was rooting for them. They were so beautiful and wild, and I didn’t think about the impact that this movie was going to have. I was only focused on the impact that it was having on me when I was invited to be a part of it.
DEADLINE: Like so many people, I loved your role in Center Stage and it’s such a treat to see you dancing and singing in this film. Do you feel like you might do more of that now going forward?
SALDAÑA: If the opportunity presents itself like Emilia Pérez did, oh my god, absolutely. It would be an honor for me to be able to reconnect more and more with those parts of me that I’ve been missing so much.
DEADLINE: And as a producer, are you looking for projects that might involve music and dance?
SALDAÑA: I think I feel like Jacques in that sense, like I like non-musical musicals. You know? There’s just something really contrived sometimes in a musical that I can’t really get into. I feel like I can see them on stage and for me, they still have an element of surprise, and I don’t anticipate a musical moment when I view it in a theater. But for some reason when they’re translated into films, that nuance, that surprise, goes away. And it’s not to say it’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m just saying that it’s not really for me. So, I would love to find those stories that feel very special and that are calling out a musical as opposed to me forcing something to be a musical.
DEADLINE: I did this long deep dive story with Karla Sofía right before Emilia Pérez came out and she was saying how she had anticipated coming to set and being quite scared because she was joining actors that were very well known. But she said it had been such a sisterhood on set and she had learned so much from you. Can you talk about that dynamic, particularly working so closely with her?
SALDAÑA: I mean, it’s an honor to receive that feedback. Karla is a giant and she stands on her own and she’s so great and as the leader of this entire journey, she set a very strong tone of leadership and dedication and hard work and focus and passion. And I’m just so happy that she did that, because it really encouraged us all to do the same. She believed the most. She was totally dedicated to what she was doing. She cared so much, and she brings a certain level of passion to what she’s doing, so it’s kind of infectious. At times it may have seemed like it was intense, but it was so interesting to see her work and how she still found moments of humor. She would make me laugh, like mouth-open-out-loud, half of the time. I have a great level of respect for her. I am so honored that she can make history with Emilia Pérez and she deserves it. She deserves every acknowledgement, every accolade, because she’s talented and because she’s a decent human being and she’s just so awesome. And I just feel so privileged that Emilia Pérez will go on the record on being on the right side of history, and I’m happy that I’m a part of that.
Emilia Pérez is currently streaming on Netflix.
