“Emilia Pérez” Q&A With Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, And More At NYFF62
[Music] welcoming back the team from media Perez starting with Edgar [Music] Ramirez [Music] AB our wonderful Stanish language interpreter Cordelia Mones [Music] Carla Sophia [Applause] G Selena Gomez our wonderful French language interpreter Lilia [Applause] [Music] P Jack fard oh and Zoe [Applause] Sal team Amilia Perez give him another round [Applause] thank thank you all for being here and um for this wonderfully bold and utterly unclassifiable movie um Jack I’ll start with you um you’ve made you’ve made many climb Thrillers you’ve made many movies about characters who reinvent themselves whether it’s a prophet or donon or uh one of your earliest features a self-made even so nothing really prepares us in your work for Emilia Perez and can you talk about just how you came to this story I know You’ mentioned the book there at one point I understand going to be an Opera um take us on that Journey to the screen how many how much time do we have that minute 20 minutes um um so it happened very quickly well not at all it took four years and uh it was a character in one chapter in a novel that in the book was not developed and I decided to ful revelop it at first it came to me as an idea for lto for an opera for four acts but then why it turned out to be the way it is I’m totally incapable of telling you well the works and it would not work without these her performers and especially without Carla in the lead role how how did you find Carla Sophia G and Carla I’ll bring you in here as well too what was your reaction from reading this material and being offered this role but the question is it for me or for Carla both both I’ll start with start with you ja because if it’s for me the question was not asked the right way because it’s actually K Sophia that found me and it’s Zoe who found me Carlo you want to tell us about that both of you I not found anybody Ed [Music] for [Music] [Applause] maybe it’s not the same uh it’s been a really wonderful Road and it’s been really incredible to find this team Zoe Jack Selena Edgar Adriana um I think life has a way of putting the right people in your path and I feel like in this time it brought the right people together it brought it brought this wonderful team that all we wanted to do was create and to do something incredible to do something impressive for the world it brought us together and um to bring out all of the love that we have inside I I think life brings together sometimes good people sometimes bad people and this time I’m so grateful that it brought us [Applause] together you pull off such a tremendous juggling act in this movie uh you were acting singing dancing speaking predominantly in Spanish um which um can you talk about just taking on such a a rich and demanding showcase for your talents and what you what else for you to par um it was it was scary uh because these were elements of myself that I I I grew up doing I I grew up as a child dancing ballet and then as a New Yorker performing in a musical theater and and doing all those things but the moment my path led me down to to Hollywood um those parts of me I almost feel like became completely dorant when Jacko diard um was when I was put my name was put forth on his table and we met um the way that he described this this project I didn’t even feel worthy of it I’m like this these are the kind of projects that you go and you watch Masters do you you know with Jack and and but throughout endless conversations via Zoom which was a great buffer because had I met him in person I would have totally you know sunk that audition but um via Zoom it just gave us this ability to kind of like just be my myself and listen to the story and he did describe it as an opera but in the in the the bones of it were these women primarily Amelia and they were on this journey to find their own authentic freedom and and I like the fact that it was it was dressed in this reality that was so alien to me and yet so familiar um so I jumped at the challenge the challenge became the scariest element but then at the end that challenge became the gift gift I got I was able to reconnect with parts of myself that I had I had lost along the way and to and to be challenged as an artist with more parts of me that I knew for years that I have so much more to give I’m I’m constantly evolving I nothing but a work in progress I’m so proud that I I I was a part of of his story because there’s something really beautiful about about shooting it um there were moments in which I would come to him and ask him questions and and and he would you know he his thing was like well well it’s it’s let’s just find it then if you don’t know it let just feel it and let and let’s just find it and that’s the thing about Amilia it’s not about what we know as much as it is about what we feel when we watch it and what you feel is love and exhilaration and wonder and mercy for characters that are unredeemable and yet he delivers from the from the beginning until the end a person that that deserves a chance at love and freedom you know and that that to me was remarkable and I saw that very early [Music] [Applause] on one of the most M things about the movie is the evolution of Rita and Amelia’s relationship from this point of of of Menace and danger to a place of near total trust and and understanding and can you talk a little bit about what it was like just bringing that those scenes of of kind of charting this this subtle change in the relationship and I’ll I’ll ask it to Carla in a different way too you want to go first Sil um well the relationship with um between R and and Amelia Amelia as Amelia past and also Amelia present represented everything that R wanted but arita doesn’t even have an ounce of the courage that Amelia has she wishes and just being close to her gives her that ounce of Freedom that probably brings her close to her manifesting it for herself but um but Amelia scares the living light don’t read that um not because she’s dangerous at first yes we think that it was because she was dangerous actually was because she was courageous and um my relationship with Goda was pretty similar I feel like I met God that this summer before we started shooting and then I met Gaba at the rap party everything in between I got to see this volcanic artist just bring together two people at once and I saw this woman dig into her life and take the most important elements of herself and shared them with a media and um and that was remarkable but standing next to that force of nature was sometimes scary but there’s um there’s resp respect and absolute admiration um for for Garla and and the same thing for Amelia they’re they’re just they’re Incredible characters she’s my friend [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] f a [Music] [Music] person [Music] for for [Music] [Music] [Applause] and right because it’s not the same [Laughter] I I have an absolutely wonderful relationship with Zoe um it’s similar to a relationship that Emelia and ra had it’s a relationship that went from Fear To Love and it’s really been an incredible path um that this film was able to bring us here um after filming in Paris to be here in the most important city in the world sharing this with this wonderful audience I really think that we have given the best of ourselves we have all given the best of ourselves into this film and we all struggled in our own ways to make this happen I have to say that Zoe is probably the strictest art actress that I have met she’s so strict in her work um she takes her work so so seriously um she’s really wonderful and you know I have my my my special relationship with Selena as well Adriana Edgar this sir right here I don’t even know why he’s here it’s really been a wonderful group of people um and it’s it’s been a beautiful path that we’ve embarked upon together um I really lived this as we were as if we were a family um you know sometimes it’s terrible and sometimes it’s absolutely wonderful but I think we have made this project grow we it has brought us here and it’s going to bring us um even even further I think the most important thing for me with this film is its message it’s um it’s a film that goes beyond the screen that touches hearts and you know I don’t like to think about Good and Evil but I do think that there’s this kind of fight between light and darkness and this film is bringing so much light into the world [Applause] [Laughter] I’ll tell you something else when I arrived it was raining and today the sun is shining Selena you’ve worked with some terrific adventurous filmmakers in your acting career from from Harmony kin to Jim jamush to now Jac o um among others what and what was it like what what how did you and Jack connected and what Drew you to the role of of Jessica um to be honest I I am I feel like acting has always been something I’ve been truly truly passionate about personally it’s my favorite thing in the world to have incredible filmmakers believe in me is really special all the parts that I have been able to do I’ve earned I I auditioned in front of him and I was terrified it was it was amazing but I think that’s what I would love my career to be like I I would be honored to sit with him and create beautiful movies I don’t I don’t know how to explain it I I love real film and it just feels like I finally get to do the things that I’ve dreamed of always doing since I was a little girl and this was a dream come true for me because it was just a special project to be a part [Applause] of can I add one thing we did do some auditions with Selena but I fell in love with her at first sight one morning in a cafe in New York it was a good [Applause] deal after that you just get to work that’s it just like with everybody else Adriana and Edgar I want to bring you both into um you’ve both been acting for some time and you’re both remarkable in this movie and adding some you know when we see Amelia fall in love with epia when we see uh Gustavo who brings this note of violence and rooms ever larger toward especially toward the end of the movie what were your discussions with uh jacar like in discussing your roles um was there a big difference in terms of I don’t remember no no no I I can’t remember I I think it was um about that what you see is not what it really is you know that at the beginning that maybe you’re are going to believe that epip is going to kill a milia or something like that and then you’re going to discover that it’s way the opposite that that it’s like kind of light for for Amelia and I was so nervous for this sin uh because I had to to to make a journey like okay it’s the opposite like if you find out that your husband has has died is like you’re going to cry because you’re sad and then that was everything was like the opposite so my mind was like okay this is what it should be but I have to do the opposite but then the other thing and then right so it was so challenging I must say um yes I remember one thing one day before my scene I started in the movie he called me and he told me like can we meet and and have a coffee and I was like okay because I have something to tell you and I was like oh my God and then we met and he told me like okay Adana you are so dramatic you are like super actress dramatic actress and I’m finding kind of comedy in all this world with Zoe with Selena with Carla so I need you to find your comedy and I was like okay it’s tomorrow and it’s true I’m so dramatic and I feel so good in drama but I was like okay I have to find my comedy and that’s what I tried to do and it it was it was funny too and and and I like challenges because it it gives you to I you know that the difficult things makes you grow and I’m so grateful to to be here and with be with him he is um he is very kind director and all these guys I mean it could be like oh she’s going to say she’s going to say the same but no it’s true they they’re so nice they are all so nice I I saw the movie for the second time this time this this night tonight and I was like oh I’m so proud to be part of this [Music] great Ed and with you did uh any surprises that jacqu frung on you uh the whole thing was a surprise the whole thing I mean from you know from the invitation to be part of this wonderful film to you know the performance and I mean it was a happening this was a happening I mean we I mean of course the the the ladies I mean they they had they had to record all the songs and I guess that there was a little bit of structure there but I think they’re one of the wonders of of working with with someone like like Jack who’s so curious and so compass passate is the enormous amount of Freedom that you feel as an actor you know there’s never a wrong choice it’s just another Choice and then you try to do it and together we discover what might be you know cuz in the end I mean that’s what I think in my opinion what a great director does the movies take con their own form as you shoot them and then as you cut them so the more choices and the more possibilities that you have the better of course there is an structure but but for short uh we always had a very big you know very um fruitful uh very warm environment to create and um and that was there were a lot of things that you know we know that went on I mean the for example the musical number between Selena’s character and mine was not on the script it was something that came up during the process and suddenly it’s like okay now I want you to dance and I want you to have this number and all of that so that’s why I would come to set just ready you know dressed and that’s it you know then ready for ready for the magic to Happ well congratulations to all on taking this whole [Applause] bref you [Applause] n
Q&A for #EmiliaPerez with stars #ZoeSaldaña, #KarlaSofíaGascón, #SelenaGomez, #AdrianaPaz, #ÉdgarRamírez, and Director #JacquesAudiard in New York City on 9/30/2024 at the 2024 #NewYorkFilmFestival #NYFF62 #NYFF #NYFF2024
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1 Comment
1:14 What’s the name of the French interpreter? Lilia who?