Of the many twists and surprises in Jacques Audiard’s audacious musical “Emilia Pérez,” the most startling comes during the film ‘s end credits, when one realizes that breakout performer Karla Sofía Gascón stars as the eponymous Emilia both pre- and post-gender-affirming surgery. Of course she’s the stunning Emilia, but she also plays evil cartel leader Manitas. That’s a bold move, and no one involved in the transformation of Gascón into a male character took it lightly.
“I was scared for Karla when we had to talk about this part of the film,” co-head of makeup Julia Floch Carbonel told IndieWire. “I was scared to put her back somewhere that she, of course, had been really unhappy. But what we created, she was really joyful about it.
Very enthusiastic all the time.” For Manitas, the terrifying cartel leader who hires a young lawyer named Rita (Zoe Saldana) to act as a go-between to schedule gender-affirming surgery, Audiard wanted a “chimera,” Floch Carbonel said, “a really scary presence to contrast with Emilia after. Also because it’s not only about transition, it’s about the way that finally Emilia can express the love that she has.
[As Manitas,] she’s stuck in the representation of male violence, so we wanted a big contrast because between scary and a really soft, modern after.” “With Manitas, I did not care how horrible she looked, but with Emilia, I wanted her to be so perfect,” Gascón told IndieWire. “I wanted her to be.
