‘Emilia Perez’ Stars Talk Push to Vote After Racist Jokes at Trump Rally: ‘I Definitely Want to Stand by My People’

Following the footsteps of Selena Gomez, who dropped her ballot off on the way to the premiere of “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,” fellow “Emilia Perez” star Zoe Saldaña also cast her vote this week, the star shares while attending the Netflix co-hosted premiere of Jacques Audiard’s new musical at the opening night of the 28th American French Film Festival (TAFFF) at the DGA on Tuesday night.

“Emilia Perez,” an exhilarating Mexico-set musical crime drama, made history after its premierea at the Cannes Film Festival in the summer, winning a collective prize for its ensemble cast of Saldaña, Gomez, Adriana Paz and Karla Sofía Gascón. The latter, who stars as a fearsome cartel leader who embraces her true self as a woman and embarks on a redemptive path, became the first openly trans actor to win a major award at Cannes. While “Emilia Perez” has been submitted as France’s Oscar candidate, Netflix, which bought the movie for the U.K. and the U.S., is splurging to campaign for it in major categories, including best actress for Gascón, who could become the first openly trans actress recognized by the Oscars.

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The movie opens in limited theaters on Nov. 13, shortly after the end of U.S. election season, which has seen Donald Trump and his Republican allies pushing violent rhetoric towards trans people and Latinos.

“I voted today so I’m definitely exercising my responsibility as an American citizen to care for the well-being of my nation, because it’s also my son’s country and it has to be worthy of my children,” says Saldaña, who is campaigning for a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her part in “Emilia Perez.”

Saldaña, whose mother is Puerto Rican, also reacted to the racist remarks made by Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico and Latinos during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend.

“It’s sad that today, 2024, there’s just so much poverty in character on so many people that we misname as leaders,” Saldaña says. “We have to pick leaders that really represent who we are as human beings.”

Gomez, meanwhile, also reacted to Hinchcliffe’s remarks, saying she “strongly disagreed with any comments that were made recently. I definitely want to stand by my people.” Gomez explained she posted a video of her submitting her ballot because “people can sometimes forget that the one vote can change every time. And it’s one of the most important campaign or presidential debates that we’ve had.”

Sofía Gascón reflected on the recent election of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who became Mexico’s first ever woman president and said she hoped “people will do things reasonably and think rationally.”

“We would not want to go back to what we had a few years ago in the world, which I think was not the best it could be. I have hope in human beings and I understand that they are going to choose what is best for their country and for the society in which they live,” she says.

The packed screening of “Emilia Perez” on the opening night of TAFFF gathered a large contingent of Netflix executives, including co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who delivered a speech about the service’s big investment in French movies for the last 10 years, and its track record with international movies at the Oscars, after taking home prizes with “Roma” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

Audiard, who received the Franco-American Cultural Fund Award from the hands of Michael Mann, spoke about the movie’s progressive message, especially when it comes to “representation” for openly trans performers. “The acting prize at Cannes meant a lot in terms of representation, and although I don’t wake up every morning thinking about opening up people’s minds, I think cinema has an identifying power and I always strive to make use of it in my films,” Audiard said.

Audiard also spoke about hitting the Oscar trail 14 years after “A Prophet,” which had been nominated as a foreign-language feature. He said the campaign for “Emilia Perez” has been “much larger and more intense” than he ever experienced. While the French director is known to be press-shy, he turned up on stage after the screening with Saldaña, Gomez, Paz and Gascón to participate in a Q&A hosted by DGA president Taylor Hackford.

Truffart, the longtime director of TAFFF (previously called COLCOA), said the festival’s move from the spring to the fall has allowed it to play a strategic role in the annual awards season, bringing together French talent, Academy voters and Hollywood players such as Hackford. Truffart has high hopes for this edition, which marks the festival’s comeback after back-to-back cancelations due to the pandemic and the double SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

“We moved the festival to the fall in 2019, the year of ‘Les Miserables’ and it brought us luck,” said Truffart, citing that drama’s Oscar nomination for international feature. “Last year, we would have had ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ if we hadn’t canceled. Now with ‘Emilia Perez,’ we feel that there’s a tremendous momentum. We haven’t seen Netflix so excited about an international movie since ‘Roma.'”

“‘Emilia Perez’ is such a unique artistic proposition. You can imagine it wouldn’t get made in the United States, where there’s a crisis in independent cinema. Netflix believes in the film too, because it’s so special and so new to Academy members,” Truffart continued.

Cécile Rap-Veber, president of the Franco-American Cultural Fund and CEO of SACEM, also spoke at the opening night gala, highlighting this edition’s emphasis on music through movies such as “Emilia Perez” whose score was created by songwriters Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol, as well as “The Count of Monte Cristo” scored by Jérôme Rebotier; and “Bolero,” about the life of musical composer Maurice Ravel.

Besides Audiard, this milestone edition of TAFF is also gathering Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius with “The Most Precious of Cargoes;” directors Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte and producer Dimitri Rassam with their French box office sensation “The Count of Monte-Cristo” on closing night; “Wild Diamond” director Agathe Riedinger and star Malou Khebizi; Anne Fontaine with “Bolero;” and Julien Colonna with “The Kingdom,” among others.

In total, the festival will showcase 60 films and series, including 14 shorts and 14 series or TV movies. As many as 16 of these features will premiere in LA after playing at editions of the Berlin, Cannes, and Venice International Film Festivals.