Inside the World of ‘Emilia Pérez’: How Mickey Rourke and Catherine Deneuve Inspired the Title Character’s Looks

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points, including the ending for “Emilia Pérez,” currently streaming on Netflix.

Mickey Rourke’s Randy Robinson in “The Wrestler” and the timeless looks of Catherine Deneuve served as inspiration for the titular character in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez.”

The film follows Emilia (Karla Sofia Gascón), a feared cartel leader who seeks the help of a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), to fake her death and undergo gender-affirming surgery to finally live life authentically as her true self. Gascón was confident she could play both roles in Emilia’s transition journey, which set up a mammoth task for the team of artisans.

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When audiences first meet Emilia, the character is a fearsome drug lord whose penchant for killing creates a sense of terror. “Manitas is just trying to survive and to get ahead in society,” Gascón explains. “All he had left was pretending to be something that he was not. He was immersed in the depth of his darkness, and he was trapped in this place and he just couldn’t get out.”

When audiences first meet her, Gascón’s face needed to look as masculine as possible, so makeup department head Julia Floch Carbonel worked with SFX makeup artist Jean Christophe Spadaccini to experiment with different noses, damaged skin and hairstyles. “We still needed pre-transition Emilia to look scary,” Carbonel says. “I dug through my inspiration and Mickey Rourke in ‘The Wrestler’ [had] the type of face who fought with bare hands, but also kept a certain coquetry and adornment — tattoos, long hair, thin eyebrows, metal teeth.” Ultimately, the team crafted a prosthetic nose and jaw, cheek and acne scars as well as face tattoos for the final look.

Costume designer Virginie Montel dressed pre-transition Emilia in a blue velvet tracksuit. “The fabric is delicate, the jewelry is in-your-face, and the hair long — revealing a feminine side that Manitas can only express through the virile codes learned growing up,” Montel says. “The blue and white and the use of velvet make pre-transition Emilia more sophisticated. The color is bold and singular and the fabric stands out in contrast to her environment.” She adds: “We were guided by the need to make sure the character wouldn’t be recognizable after her transition.”

Emilia’s transition heralds a new chapter in the character’s life. The film skips ahead four years, and Emilia reappears in London where Rita is having a business dinner. Emilia is a fellow guest, but Rita doesn’t recognize her until she strikes up a conversation about being from Mexico.

“She’s someone who continues pretending. She can’t stop pretending to be something she’s not,” Gascón says of Emilia, explaining that Rita is the only person she feels any sort of freedom and she can be herself around. “In this scene, she’s toying with [Rita], and she’s revealing herself. But, I think the intention behind it, is that she isn’t just trying to get her children back, but there’s some desire to be praised.”

In terms of her look, Emilia’s post-transition makeup emphasized Gascón’s softness. Carbonel says, “Jacques was inspired by the timeless French icon Catherine Deneuve. He wanted a feminine classical beauty for Emilia. Romain Marietti imagined this soft ash blond long wavy wig for Karla, moving away from a brunette aesthetic. With less of a color contrast, I could go even lighter on Emilia’s makeup and let a lot of her natural beauty shine through.”

Emilia’s makeup palette was steeped in beige, khaki, yellow, brown and peach. “I tried to avoid red as much as possible because the blond hair already changed our perception of her complexion,” Carbonel adds, explaining that yellow makes red pop. The only exception was during the fundraising gala later in the film, where Carbonel used a bright matte red lipstick to match Saldaña’s outfit in the scene, “but also to express that [Emilia’s] words are fire.”

As Emilia eases into herself and plays up her femininity, Montel points out her jewelry has become more refined and her dress underlines her cleavage without exaggerating it. “Emilia is a socialite inspired by a mix of Catherine Deneuve and Italian stars, dressed in classic black,” Montel says. “She can’t take any risks on the initial impression she makes. She is now a woman more educated than her background suggests; one assumes she has learned, or else the film’s poetic license simply allows it.”

Post-transition, Emilia’s blond hair is always styled and she’s at ease wearing colors, patterns and silk. Montel explains, “Jacques had suggested we aim for softness, we added gracefulness. When she first appears, Emilia is sophisticated, she blends right in at this posh London restaurant.”

After London, Emilia puts a plan into motion to reconcile with her children and recruits Rita to help in her bold move back to Mexico. Once there, Emilia keeps a foot in her past life, opening up La Lucecita, an organization that helps search for the victims of drug cartel-related murders. Her silhouette becomes simpler and she wears pants and silk blouses. “She knows and respects the people who come looking for their disappeared. She doesn’t want to overdo it, just like Rita; they’re both intelligent women who know how to adapt to circumstances,” Montel says, noting that she drew inspiration from rich Mexican women and the icons of French and Italian film whom Emilia would have modeled herself after. 

“It comes from this desire to help others, to help the society around you,” Gascón says of Emilia’s decision to found the organization, though it’s her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and children who she loves most and wants to win back. “She doesn’t dare to take that step because she fears rejection. So she continues pretending to look for love in others because she feels it’s impossible.”

By the end of the film, Emilia gets a moment with Jessi. During the musical number “Perdóname” (which is set amid a shootout), Emilia sings her confession and reveals who she once was — throwing Jessi for a loop. It’s a less-than-ideal time to share the news, but Emilia knows they might die and what is happening is out of her control. So she takes advantage of her final opportunity to confess who she is and that she loves Jessi.

“In asking for forgiveness for everything that’s happened, she feels sorry and she never meant to harm her in any way, and what she truly wished was to give her another type of life,” Gascón says, explaining Emilia’s intentions in those final moments.

Reflecting on the character’s arc, Gascón adds: “I see this character as someone who never truly did all those horrible things to then become this Mother Teresa. Manitas was a drug lord that was playing pretend. I didn’t see him as somebody truly horrible.”