Emilia Perez made quite the mark at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not in the usual way of selling to a major studio or frivolous behind the scenes drama exploding into “Spitgate” investigations online or anything. No, Emilia Perez was the subject of conversation because of its trailblazing representation and the landmark achievement that it received at the festival honoring one of its lead actresses.
The new musical crime-drama from director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, Dheepan) tells the story of Rita (Zoe Saladana) a lawyer who’s assigned to help a druglord escape the authorities and undergo sex reassignment surgery with the hope of beginning a new life free from the past. While the premise is similar to previous schlocky attempts at providing provocative commentary on gender identity, Emilia Perez sets itself apart by casting Karla Sofía Gascón as the titular role. A role that undergoes quite the drastic transformation throughout the course of the film.
You see, Karla started her career as a man. Born on March 31st, 1972 in Alcobendas, Spain, Karla found herself living and working in Mexico, adopting the culture and embracing the country as her home. She flourished, working on numerous telenovellas and Mexican soap operas, eventually finding herself in a few feature films. Then in 2016 there was a paradigm shift within herself. Despite her established acting career she decided to come out as transgender and make the transition from living as a man to living as a woman.
In interviews, Karla’s said of the decision, “I do it now or I never do it. I have always known what I was and what I wanted to do but there was no opportunity to do it because I had developed in a different way”.
Like many trans women who decide to transition later in life, she faced obstacles, insults and critics wishing her death “simply for existing.” Her career was altered in surprising ways too. The roles she was getting suddenly disappeared and, aside from a few guest appearances and a Mexican celebrity version of the show Masterchef, she struggled to book anything onscreen for years. For nearly a decade she’s been rebuilding her career, determined to prove to everyone she was still just as skilled a performer as she was before transitioning.
Emilia Perez feels like the end result, the culmination of all her hard work, a movie that puts her in the spotlight working with some of the biggest names acting today such as Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, and Edgar Ramirez. Karla almost passed on the film entirely, fearing her telenovela past hadn’t prepared her for a musical film. And yet, the movie premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, secured the coveted Jury Prize, and its ensemble of leading ladies received a Best Actress award, Karla Sofía Gascón included.
This year marks the first time that a trans performer has received an acting award of any kind at the prestigious festival. In fact, Emilia Perez has taken an award at every festival that it’s played at, setting up potential Academy Award hopes for Gascón, which would shatter glass ceilings everywhere, not only for trans performers, but also telenovela stars whose craft often goes unappreciated and overlooked.
Even without the accolades, Karla Sofía Gascón is a stellar example of representation, living proof that one can break away from a former life and build themselves up while still honoring their past and remaining authentic to themselves. Proof that, wherever your beginnings are, you can make history in a world that doesn’t want you to succeed.