‘Emilia Pérez’ wouldn’t work without Karla Sofía Gascón. Now, she could make trans history

TORONTO (AP) — Karla Sofía Gascón’s performance in “Emilia Pérez” as a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirmation surgery to become a woman has brought her global acclaim and set Gascón on a path that may make her the first openly transgender actor ever nominated for an Oscar. But on this morning, she’s feeling contemplative.

“I woke up with such a philosophical streak,” Gascón says, smiling. “In life, everything can be good or bad. We are a mix of so many things. There are things that make you happy and instead they make you sad, or the other way around.”

The dichotomies of life are a fitting subject for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” a film that puts just about every genre — musical, crime thriller, melodrama — into a grandiose mixer, and, by sheer nerve, manages to coalesce into one of the year’s most memorable movie experiences. “Emilia Pérez,” which began streaming Wednesday on Netflix, is widely expected to be a best picture nominee.

At the center of the “Emilia Pérez” phenomenon – which began with a barn-storming premiere at the Cannes Film Festival — is Gascón who plays both the menacing cartel kingpin Manitas and the woman who emerges after Manitas fakes his own death, Emilia Pérez. Years later, Emilia contacts the lawyer who facilitated her transition (Zoe Saldaña) to her reunite with her wife (Selena Gomez) and their children.

The wild swings of “Emilia Pérez” – a movie that has earned comparisons to both “Sicario” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” – wouldn’t be possible without Gascón. In Cannes, she and her co-stars shared in the best actress prize, which Gascón accepted.

“We’ve been insulted, denigrated, subjected to a lot of violence without even knowing why,” Gascón said that evening. “I think this is award is so much more than anyone could imagine.”

Now, Gascón is widely forecast to be nominated for best actress at the Academy Awards. At a time when trans rights in the U.S. are the subject of intense political debate, Gascón is on the cusp of making trans history. (Only cisgender actors have previously been Oscar nominated for playing trans roles.) But, when Gascón sat down for an interview a few hours before the premiere of “Emilia Pérez” at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, she was more inclined to gently muse about what might be in store for her.

“I’m a little like Nostradamus. I like to think about what can happen. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter,” Gascón says. “If it does happen, I would be so grateful. It would be a beautiful thing. But if it doesn’t, whatever. I’d go back to my old life. I’ll do my grocery shopping. I’ll play with cats. I’ll see my family. Maybe I’ll do other jobs and people will like those jobs.

“I like to go lightly in my life,” she adds, smiling.

Gascón, 52, is Spanish and lives in Mexico. She spoke through an interpreter but understands English enough to sometimes giggle and shake her head at her own words while they’re being translated. She was a regular in Mexican telenovels before transitioning in 2018.

“All people that live in a body that they don’t feel matches who they truly are do suffer one way or the other. But in my case, I feel like I handled it quite well,” Gascón says. “I always tried to be happy with the life I had, even before my transition. Maybe I chose to do this job as an actor because I wasn’t quite happy with my life with the way I was before, so I wanted to experiment with other lives.”

Playing Emilia Pérez was in many ways a giant leap for Gascón. She had to change her voice (she uses a Mexican accent in the film), work on singing and movement, and change her posture. But there were also things Gascón shared with her character. Gascón has a 13-year-old daughter from a marriage pre-transition with whom she remains close.

“We all find it hard to accept the loss of the people we love. You constantly try to get back your loved ones,” Gascón says. “That’s what I tried to implement in the character. This is what does unite me with the character — doing everything possible to get back the people you love. It’s been a constant in my life. And sometimes it’s impossible.”

Audiard, the protean French filmmaker, has long specialized in films of transformation and metamorphosis, including “A Prophet,” “Dheepan” and “Rust and Bone.” He initially balked, though, at having Gascón play Manitas as well as Emilia. For Gascón, it would mean returning to a male persona, something Audiard hesitated to ask of her. But Gascón insisted. To her, the only kind of character she doesn’t want to play is a boring one.

“If I was asked to play Abraham Lincoln tomorrow, I’d love it. Bring it on! For me, the farther the character is from me in real life, the better,” Gascón says.

“I’ve met actresses who had a hard time stepping back and going through stuff that was part of their past. They would cry and take it badly. Never for me.”

In conversation, Gascón seems still tickled by the whole experience. She’s delighted that many people don’t realize Manitas is played by her. She laughs at how a movie about a violent drug lord, someone who’d normally be a villain, should inspire so much empathy. And for someone with a very big spotlight on her, she seems remarkably at peace.

“If I were asked to do my life over again, I’d probably do it exactly as it was, with all of it,” Gascón says. “It’s wonderful that one gets to experience with these two poles, these two extremes. In a way, it’d be wonderful if all of us had access to this. Having done that allowed to me to better understand so many things that weren’t so clear to me before. In the end, what I realized is that we’re all the same.”