'Oh my gosh, I don't think that my thoughts were fast enough [to keep up] with my emotions,' Zoe Saldaña recalls about her experience of reading the script of Emilia Pérez for the first time during a game of Ask Me Anything with ELLE UK.
The actor, who has since received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for her role, plays a resourceful lawyer named Rita in the critically-acclaimed film, who helps the titular cartel leader to flee their criminal past in order to fulfill a dream of transitioning into living as a woman.
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On what drew her to the story, Saldaña shares, 'The opportunity to jump into a story involving four women, four women of colour, four Hispanic women. Everything about it felt exciting.'
Away from the cameras and red carpets, the Avatar star is a devoted mother and wife and describes her family as her 'joy' and her loyalty to them as her 'superpower.' Bittersweetly, she was actually on her way to a family emergency when she heard the news of her first Oscar nomination. 'We were all together and everybody is fine, thank God. It was a little sweet and sour, but that's what life is.'
Despite her Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage — and Spanish mother tongue — Emilia Pérez is one of Saldaña's first Spanish-language roles. What, then, is one of her favourite Spanish words to teach people? 'Coño,' she laughs. 'You stomp your toe? Coño. You're wearing a nice, little dress and it's raining? Coño. You over salted your meat? Coño. You f*cked up a line? Coño.' It means vagina or f*ck, by the way.
Emilia Pérez is streaming on Netflix now. Watch Ask Me Anything with Zoe Saldaña above.
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Furvah Shah is Acting Entertainment Booker for ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Red and Prima. She secures interviews with your favourite celebrities and covers everything from TV and films to music and books. Furvah has previously written for , BBC, and and she is super passionate about highlighting diverse talent and projects, having interviewed the likes of Jenna Ortega, Charithra Chandran, Ambika Mod and more. She graduated with a First in BA Media and Communications from Goldsmiths University and is an NCTJ-qualified journalist. In her free time, you can find her at an arts or culture event, eating Middle Eastern or Asian food, searching for modest fashion inspiration on Pinterest or cuddling with her cat. You can follow Furvah on , , and .
