Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón on the Trans Drug Lord Story Emilia Pérez

Films like “I Saw the TV Glow” and “The People's Joker” have made transgender narratives a big part of arthouse cinema this year, and that direction continues this fall with the musical crime comedy “Emilia Pérez,” a film about a drug cartel leader who seeks to leave her past life behind by undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular cartel leader, told TheWrap Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman at our 2024 TIFF Studio, sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design, that she looks for roles that are as far removed from her real-life experiences as possible — and what could be further away than playing a drug lord?

“I think part of our job as actors and actresses is to understand people completely and, through that understanding, to encourage development in the people who are watching us,” she said. “So for me, the more different a character is from me, the better, the happier I am, the more interesting they are to me. If I were to play a character that was too close to my own life, I wouldn't find it as interesting or challenging.”

Gascón is supported in the film by two Hollywood heavyweights: Zoë Saldaña as Rita, the jaded lawyer who makes a living representing criminals like Emilia, and Selena Gomez as Emilia's estranged wife Jessi.

As Rita, Saldaña had to sing several musical numbers in Spanish, with director Jacques Audiard advising her to see the film's story about these three women as an opera. The actress says she welcomed the role as a “complete journey” that allowed her to get back in touch with the singing and dancing she did before embarking on her professional acting career.

“I started out as a ballerina as a child. As a New Yorker, that naturally evolves into musicals and you do them in school and concerts and small ensembles,” Saldaña recalls. “But then when your career takes over, acting becomes this centerfold and I thought I would never get another chance to connect with all the parts of myself that I consider my craft. Jacques gave me that opportunity in the form of Rita.”

Netflix will release “Emilia Pérez” on November 8. Watch the interview in the video above.