Winner of the Prix d'interprétation féminine (shared collectively with the rest of the female cast of Emilia Perez), Karla Sofía Gascón is the first trans actress to be honored by the Cannes Film Festival. Here's the story of an extraordinary destiny.
A Spanish actress born in Madrid, Karla Sofía Gascón began her career before her transition, in series for Spanish television. But it was in Mexico, through numerous telenovelas ( Llena de amor, Corazón salvaje, Una familia con suerte...) that the actress, under her birth name Carlos, made a name for herself. She went on to work all over the continent, filming a Guatemalan series and getting her first major film role in Nosotros, los Nobles, a Mexican comedy by Gary Alazraki, a huge success in Latin America. But it was Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez, in which she plays a cartel boss who hides her gender transition from everyone, that brought her international recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also the first film she made after her own transition.
Jacques Audiard explains that it was particularly difficult to find the right actress for this complex role, which is also partly sung, as Emilia Perez is a musical. The director scoured Mexico City's trans community in search of his actress, but each time, he explains, "transition was the script of their lives". "It's certainly an extraordinary scenario, but if it takes up all the space, it becomes invasive," he explains. Unlike the other candidates he met, Karla Sofía Gascón was an actor before she was an actress, and her work as an actor existed beyond her transition. This meant she could easily take on the character and play another transition, different from her own. At the start of the film, Emilia is still Manitas, and Karla Sofía Gascón had to be transformed into a man, using make-up, hairpieces and fake moustaches. An experience that could have been painful for some trans people. Karla Sofía Gascón, who says she was inspired by John Rambo for the cartel boss's virile voice, interpreted the role like any other character.
Karla Sofía Gascón is neither a singer nor a dancer, and she recounts that it took her a long time to prepare - over a year in advance of the shoot. With choreographer Damien Jalet, she worked in particular on the hand movements of Manitas, then Emilia. With composers Camille and Clément Ducol, she worked on her voice, particularly for Emilia's exaggeratedly soft songs (in contrast to Manitas' violent timbre), for which the actress says she was inspired by British singer and model Samantha Fox. Karla Sofía Gascón prepared for this role with as much hard work as enthusiasm, for although she knew nothing of Jacques Audiard's films, she was excited at the prospect of sharing the lead with stars such as Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez. She says she wasn't intimidated by these actresses, always seeing them in character, and treating them " like sisters ".
This is the first time that Jacques Audiard has dealt with trans-identity in one of his films, and he admits that he had no theoretical knowledge of the subject at the outset. Karla Sofía Gascón played the role of script advisor and specialist. She told him about the difficulty of the sex reassignment surgery, which was particularly onerous, but also about her experience of suffering a life spent in a body she didn't recognize as her own. Audiard says he was impressed by her freedom, because unlike Emilia Perez's character, she didn't have to change her life completely: she still does the same job, and continues to live with her daughter's mother.
She considers herself lucky, compared to other trans people who are still too often stigmatized or victims of hate crimes. While she has no desire to be a spokesperson for any community, Karla Sofía Gascón hopes, as she said in her enthusiastic acceptance speech, that this role will lead to greater acceptance of trans and LGBTQI+ people, " so that everyone can live a normal life ".
Even a cartel boss.
EMILIA PEREZ BY JACQUES AUDIARD
RELEASED IN THEATRES AUGUST 21, 2024
