Openly transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón talks to the Guardian about hidden corsets, riding motorbikes and suing her critics
When Madonna recently posted a picture of Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón on Instagram, the word she wrote above it in bold pink letters captured what most viewers will think after seeing her in the award-winning noir musical Emilia Pérez awards: “WOW.”
Gascón, 52, who was born and raised near Madrid and has spent most of her career starring in Mexican telenovelas, plays the drug lord Manitas, who stages his own death, transforms from male to female and recreates it himself as Pérez, a socially conscious activist.
The morning after Gascón’s victory, France’s far-right MEP Marion Maréchal tweeted: “A man won best actor.”
Cry Madonna
The film Emilia Pérez is a special film, like the character Emilia Pérez. After all, there can never be enough movies about violent Mexican drug cartels and songs about vasectomy.
As befits a work that began life as a libretto, the film has an operatic feel. “Madonna was crying so much after the screening in New York,” says Gascón, sitting modestly on the edge of a lounge chair in a London hotel room.
Her thick auburn hair falls over the shoulders of her black dress, which has a white collar and short sleeves with white trim. “He told me: ‘You’re amazing! She cried and cried. I said to her: ‘Madonna, please. It’s just a movie. Be happy!”
Watch the Emilia Pérez trailer
“Trans people were undervalued”
Gascón, in turn, cried when she was named best actress at Cannes, where the film also won the jury prize. Her co-stars were Zoe Saldana, who plays Emilia’s lawyer, Selena Gomez, who is the widow of Manitas, who is convinced that Emilia is her husband’s blessed cousin, and Adriana Paz, who plays the new love of Emilia’s life .
But it was Gascón who gave the emotional six-minute acceptance speech at Cannes. Transgender people, he told the audience, “be insulted, they are belittled, they have suffered a lot of violence.”
Endorsement does not prevent abuse. The morning after Gascón’s victory, far-right French MP Marion Maréchal tweeted: “A man who won the best actor.” An LGBTQ+ organization filed a complaint against Maréchal. Gascón has sued her personally.
With his two co-stars
Will a transgender win the Oscar?
Madonna and Greta Gerwig, the president of this year’s Cannes jury, are not the only ones who are convinced of Gascón’s greatness.
Industry bible Variety has predicted she will be one of the top five actresses nominated for an Oscar this year, along with Angelina Jolie (for Maria Callas) and Tilda Swinton (for The Room Next Door).
This will make her the first openly transgender performer to be recognized in one of the Academy’s acting categories.
Lying to the director
After she was cast in the role of Emilia, director Jacques Audiard was wary of whether she would be able to play the character before the transition. She convinced him by sending videos of herself with TikTok filters and changing her voice. It’s something he does for pleasure anyway.
“I turn down the volume on the TV and do the voices of all the people on the screen,” he says. “Just for fun, when I’m bored at home. So that was easy for me.”
Why was she so determined to play Manitas? “I like roles that are far from who I am,” he says. “And I didn’t want to lose that character in every aspect. If there were flashback scenes, I would push to play them too.”
Criticism of his no-nonsense motorcycle lifestyle comes from all quarters. “Including the minority I represent,” he added
His wife and daughter
Gascon transferred at the age of 46. Then, she said to herself, “Either I do it now, or I never do it.” She continues to be supported by her husband, whom she has known since they were teenagers, and her daughter, who is now 13 years old. But there were other obstacles, even after the transition.
“I’ve been criticized for the way I look. I ride a motorcycle. I usually don’t wear makeup. People say, ‘Why be a woman if you’re not going to wear makeup?’ But there is a lot of confusion in society about what a woman is.”
Her no-toy, motorcycle-riding lifestyle has drawn criticism. “Including the minority I represent,” he added. There is something she says to herself in this situation: “You can be LGBTQ+. You can be a man, a woman, an astronaut, an electrician. But if you’re an idiot, you’re an idiot.” More laughter.
Only education will save us
Part of Emilia Pérez’s message, according to her, is that strength does not lie in the use of violence but in its denial. “With violence you can control many people and impose your will. It is a form of coercion that has led to women being forced to do housework, or black people to work in the cotton fields, or gay people not being allowed to marry.”
Where is the solution? “In education,” she says. “For example, I taught my daughter to respect herself and others and not let anyone treat her as if she were inferior. Women can now feel that they don’t need any man to solve their problems.”
* The Emilia Pérez film will be released in Greece on November 7 and on Netflix from November 13.