Karla Sofía Gascón sat down with The Hollywood Reporter during her THR cover shoot to play "Scene Stealers" and break down moments from her award-winning film 'Emilia Pérez.' She talks about transforming into Manitas, her favorite scene to film and more.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00On the one hand, I don't like to see myself, but if I'm okay, I love it.
00:04And this is the first movie that I've made, the first character,
00:09that I see and I stay like this saying,
00:14I love what you've done, bastard.
00:30Hi Hollywood Reporter, I'm Carla Sofía Gascón.
00:42Today we are going to review, to see again, three scenes of Emilia Pérez.
00:48Are you ready?
00:49If not, it doesn't matter.
00:50I'm going to do it anyway.
00:51The first scene.
00:52Do you know who I am?
00:53No.
00:54It is the first sequence that we recorded with Manitas,
01:02when Rita comes to the truck, when he talks to her for the first time.
01:07I was very afraid that when Manitas said that he wanted to be a woman,
01:13the audience would laugh, that is, they would laugh like crazy in the room.
01:17And Jack told me, make no one laugh, make no one laugh.
01:22And he repeated it to me three times and it is true that I got it.
01:24What do you want me to do?
01:27I want to be a woman.
01:30I started watching it on the monitor for the first time and I swear I was terrified.
01:36It was tremendous, I mean, we had created a character
01:41that could practically have been put in a horror movie.
01:44It was terrible and I loved it.
01:46I loved it because that was exactly what I wanted to do
01:50and what Jack wanted to do.
01:51It's wonderful, come on, everyone who sees it will be scared.
01:55They had to change my skin for about two hours.
01:58It was wonderful because I did it with a toothbrush.
02:02It was a mixture of alcohol and pigment
02:07and it was incredible how I was doing the applicators all over my face.
02:10Then, hair by hair, I put on the hair I had.
02:14Obviously, the prostheses on the nose, here in the eyes,
02:19the eyebrows, the tattoos, the hair, it was an impressive job.
02:25But it was a lot of fun because it made me get into the character much more easily.
02:31So what we had to do were a few days Manitas,
02:34other days Emilia.
02:36One day Manitas, another day Emilia.
02:38I always compare Manitas and Emilia,
02:40who in the end is the same person,
02:43with Beauty and the Beast.
02:45When it was Emilia, the Beast was inside Emilia
02:48and when it was Manitas, Beauty was inside Manitas.
02:53So I had to make sure that there was something for each of the two sides of the character.
03:02It was complicated, but if I'm honest,
03:06I felt much freer when I was inside Manitas
03:11because it was a totally different world from mine,
03:14so I had much more freedom of creation.
03:19The second scene is this one, we're in London.
03:22English?
03:24No, I'm not English.
03:26Why?
03:27No, because you are pretty.
03:30It's the first time Rita and Emilia meet since the transition.
03:37It's very funny because she doesn't know who Emilia is.
03:41I think it's beautiful how in the end Jack took us to an intimate moment
03:48inside a restaurant that was full of people,
03:51that the viewer gets into the conversation that we had between her and me.
03:56Here are some things that happened to me with the poor makeup,
04:01I had them fried,
04:02and it was my first sequence that I recorded, I think, with Emilia with her hair pulled back.
04:08So all the time they put my hair to one side and I took it off to the other,
04:15they put it to one side and I took it off to the other,
04:17because I said, no, I don't want to go out like this,
04:20and they said yes, and I said no,
04:22so it was very funny on that side.
04:24I was holding Zoe's hand and she said to me,
04:27please, hold it gently, you're very rude,
04:30because I did this, boom,
04:32and she said, no, gently, gently,
04:35and I, boom,
04:36and Zoe said to me, no, like this, look,
04:39put your fingers like this and caress me,
04:41and I, but what I want is to hold your hand,
04:43please, bring my children.
04:45No, no, no, Jack, no, the hand, the hand.
04:48This sequence also had a lot of people,
04:51we had to talk,
04:52they had to film from different points,
04:54other characters,
04:55that it wasn't just the two of us,
04:57get to the camera, get to the party,
04:59but it was very nice in the sequence,
05:01which was Emilia's first appearance
05:04after the transition,
05:06and it was very important,
05:07the sequence that we had to film,
05:09for me it was very beautiful.
05:20And the third scene is,
05:22wow, this is the one I like the most.
05:25And didn't you think of shooting together or something?
05:29Did you get to know your cousin a little bit,
05:31or not at all?
05:33I love this one.
05:36It's my favorite scene in the film.
05:39I had a very special connection at that moment,
05:42the darkness,
05:43that if he came, if I gave him a drink,
05:46I tried to get information from Jesse,
05:49and he listens, he knows how to listen very well,
05:52and sometimes that is much more important,
05:56to know how to listen to what the other actor,
05:59the other actress is telling you,
06:01and respond to what happens,
06:03than to learn the lines.
06:05We did like a thousand million endings,
06:07because each one was more beautiful than the other,
06:10and I think it was very, very difficult
06:12to choose which one they put,
06:14because any of them,
06:16I mean, in some I drank and choked,
06:19for example, when he told me about Gustavo,
06:21he did like this,
06:22and I was like, I don't know what.
06:24Or when he left, he looked at her like saying,
06:26yes, you're going to find out.
06:27Or when he left, he ate all my cookies,
06:30and he started eating all my cookies.
06:32I think they had, in editing,
06:34to have many problems,
06:35to know which of the shots to choose,
06:38because for me,
06:39it's one of the best I've done.
06:41Of course she's jealous,
06:42I always take the character,
06:44even if the audience,
06:45not even Jack, would like to know,
06:48or the audience doesn't have to know,
06:50I always take Emilia,
06:52because of the fact that
06:57Jesse was always in love with Emilia.
07:00I mean, she had been his wife,
07:02and obviously, love stays,
07:04and always wanting to tell him who she was,
07:08and trying to get back.
07:09That's why the last sequence happens.
07:11When Jesse comes home for the first time,
07:15I'm with the kids,
07:16and he goes up the stairs,
07:18look where Emilia looks
07:21when Jesse goes up the stairs.
07:23That's where I leave it, as homework.
07:25That's where I leave it.
07:27There's a very fine line between the character
07:30and what you really are.
07:32A very big connection is created,
07:34and I think that in that sequence,
07:35there was a beautiful connection
07:37between Selena and Carla Sofía Gascon,
07:40and between Emilia and Jesse.
07:48On the one hand, I don't like to be seen,
07:50but if I'm good, I love it.
07:52I mean, first I see it with reluctance,
07:55saying, if I don't like it, I don't see it anymore,
07:57and I'm going to hate it.
07:59I know that since I don't like something I've done,
08:03I hate myself forever.
08:05And that's always happened to me,
08:07that I've always had moments
08:09in the works I've done,
08:11where I said, why?
08:13And this is the first movie I've made,
08:16the first character,
08:18that I see,
08:20and I stay like this, saying,
08:23I love what you've done, bastard.
08:26For me, Emilia Perez is a complete work of art,
08:31and the best movie in the history of world cinematography.
08:35That's how it's going to start.
08:38Emilia Perez has come to me
08:39in the best moment of my life,
08:41in which I have a personal maturity,
08:45and in which I also have a very great artistic and acting maturity.
08:50I think that if I had made this character
08:52when I was 30, or 20, or even 40 years old,
08:55it wouldn't have been the same.
08:57For any actor or actress,
08:59I think the most important thing is to have lived,
09:02to have felt, to have suffered,
09:04and to have experienced all the emotions
09:06that any human being can experience
09:08in this world deeply.
09:10And the more you can receive from your own experience,
09:13the easier it is for you
09:15to be able to play a character in the best way.
09:19And in this case, it has been incredible,
09:21because it has been giving all my soul to a character.
09:28It has been wonderful.
09:34Thank you so much, Hollywood Reporter.
09:36Thank you very much, Hollywood Reporter.
09:38Thank you, thank you very much.
09:40It is a pleasure to be thanked,
09:42and I do it three times.
09:44Thank you, thank you, thank you, Hollywood Reporter.
09:47I hope to see you very soon in other things.