One on One: Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña discuss 'Emilia Pérez', womanhood and more | Bazaar UK

Hi, I'm Salita Gomez. And I'm Zoe Saldana, and we are one-on-one for Harper's Bazaar UK. What drew you to Emilia Perez? At first, purely Jacques. Jacques Ardiog. Purely that, but once I... I guess I should say I tried to understand a little bit of the story, but when you do hear it from him and you're seeing the choices he's making, you trust that feeling so deeply. And I just knew this was going to be special. I definitely, and like we've talked about this before, didn't expect, you know, the incredible reception we've been getting. Yeah, that was unexpected for sure. This is very funny. Okay. What did you enjoy the most about working with me? And what lessons did we learn? Oh my god. I am so sorry. What did I enjoy the most? Was watching you work. You're very professional. You work really hard. Thank you so much. And you fool us all the time because you were so quiet and very Salita Gomez, and then all of a sudden Jacques would say action, and this lioness would just come out in the form of Jessie, which I always knew you had in you. But it was just wonderful to see it up close. I would say one of the biggest things is how you constantly crave education and knowledge. When I hear you speak, it's like I'm hearing a pastor speak or something. It's just you have such an elegance about you that I respect deeply. And I just, you know, I appreciated how kind you were and you blew me away. It just was a really lovely experience. Thank you. Looking back, what was the most special part of shooting the film and why? Probably working with everyone together was spectacular. There were things I didn't even know that were going on, but I felt included. I deeply appreciated how free we also got to be. I think overall it was a whole new thing for me as an actor. Also shooting in Paris. How free was that? It was, I mean, even though in the movie it's Mexico, the fact that they brought Mexico into these Parisian studios, and as soon as we would go inside the studio, it felt like we were in the Eiffel. But then outside, you know, you wrap, you go have a baguette, a little piece of cheese, and a glass of wine. And you're like, I'm in Paris. I'm also speaking Spanish in Paris. I'm like asking the waiter, I'm like, gracias. Oh, no, wrong. Wrong language. How did you approach the musical numbers in Amelia Perez? What were they like to prepare for? How did I approach the musical numbers? Head on. That's how I approached them. You know, putting one foot in front of the other, no pun intended. And practicing. You know, every time there was a rehearsal on the schedule, I was the first one in, the last one out. And even on days where it was just a question, it was a courteous sort of question of like, do you want to rehearse today? I'm like, yes, absolutely. I would like to rehearse today. That's the only way that I was going to be able to pull it off. Because I was so nervous. But also, I was so rusty. Like, you know, it had been 20 years since I danced. I didn't know how my body was going to respond to the stretches, to the exercises, to the choreography. And I needed to sort of start warming up the body again. So it was exciting, but Lord, was it painful too. Girl, you did not look like you were missing a beat. Oh, my, you either. When you were doing Bienvenida and you were whipping your neck like that, and I'm not going to lie, I have to confess, I was like, oh, my God, I'm so happy. I don't have that going on for me. You were fine, better than me. What was it like reconnecting with the Spanish language through this film? Honestly, I wish I had had more time with it, because my life is so English speaking. And when I was younger, I was fluent. And it was kind of emotional in moments, because I was understanding where people were coming from. And then there's also French thrown in there and English as we're, you know, kind of working on this together. But it felt like I got to honor a part of me. I've released an album in Spanish, and that was a beautiful experience. But this was very special for me. Reconnecting with Spanish through this film, it really felt like coming home. It was so beautiful, because I'm pretty sure you can relate to this through your Mexican family. How, you know, when you're born, your first baby songs, your nursery songs, the way your mother or your grandmother sings to you is in Spanish. Your first dance is the first songs that you learn when you hear the radio. It's in Spanish. They read you poems. You watch your beloved, you know, family members speaking in this language. And all of a sudden, you sort of drift away from it. And you yearn to reconnect. So having an opportunity to do that and to share that with the world, because I'm very Latina, you know, it was a gift. But it's so funny, because my kids are kind of like you too. When they were born, it was very much like speaking in Spanish and Italian. And then I remember when that change started to happen. One of my boys was like three years old. And I was like, why don't you try that? He goes, I can't. It's too big. And the way he started transitioning from Spanish and Italian into straight English. But at first, it was like a little bit of an accent. I can't, it's too big. That's so cute. He used to say that. And then a year later, he was just like, mom. I'm like, oh, it's over. It's hard. It's very hard. What scenes were the most challenging to play? For me, the scenes that were the most challenging to play were the scenes. Obviously, the choreography was hard because I wanted to make sure that everybody felt like I was representing what they were all creating. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get that choreography, to hit those notes and all of that. When it came to the performances with the acting, there were a couple of scenes that were difficult with Carla. But it wasn't because Carla, it was difficult working with her. It was just hard navigating what was going on in the scene. And trying to understand where I stood in all of this. And then leaning into Jack and having Jack always remind me, that's exactly what Rita needs to be. You don't understand. And once I got a hang of that, feeling awkward and uncomfortable became familiar. Then that meant that I was inhabiting Rita's space a lot more. And I started to not enjoy feeling uncomfortable, but owning it. So that was interesting. I loved that. What has Emilia Perez taught you about womanhood and female relationships? There's nothing quite as pure as when two women are rising each other up and have a mission. So I'd say from personally, not around the film, being around strong women and seeing how each of you navigated the characters and embodied them was truly inspiring. I think what I really learned is I belong. I felt like I earned the right to be on that set and to be around such powerful women. If anything, it made me walk away more confident. Amen. That's so great. We are better. We are stronger. We are unbreakable when we stand together. Yes. Operating, coming from a place of love and absolute genuine admiration for a woman is a much stronger place. It's a better emotion in my body than operating out of my shadow or ego or insecurity. And that's what I guess society has taught us to do. Or maybe our environment hasn't been equipped enough to give us tools to know how to at least show up for each other. And we did it last summer when we were shooting Emilia. And it was so powerful. I remember skipping to work as opposed to coming to work with a little bit of anxiety. I was just like everything else, the choreography, the dialogue, all of that was giving me anxiety. But coming to work to either see you or see Adriana, Edgar, to see Carla, I was like, no, this is great. I'm with my friends. I'm good. I'd love that. How did we spend our time together away from filming? Lots of dinners. We were always out to dinner. I mean, lots of dinners. We went to the Beyonce concert. That was so fun. And then we went to yours with all of your family and had pizza and hung out. And your parents were there and your sister were there. And the boys were playing, you know, with your sister. That was, yeah, we spent a lot of time and danced. There was one night where we were able to dance. Hallelujah. We were in a room in a restaurant just dancing to everything. It was so fun. What do you hope audiences take away from a movie like this? I hope they take away that love can conquer all and redemption can live in all spaces. And anybody that can be redeemed and works hard to be redeemed, you know, that maybe we should revisit how we feel around redemption. You just said that women have the right to search for their own authentic freedom, however way it comes, I guess. What I hope the audience will take away is that genuinely life as a woman is very complex. However, there is an opportunity for you to fight for your freedom. And whether that's from a toxic relationship to wanting to find your identity and claiming it, it's very nuanced. And I just, I don't know. I hope that they understand that this is a message of powerful women, but also it's okay to have it look a little messy. And they're all wanting the same thing, which is the freedom to be authentically themselves. And sometimes that's hard to do, but I hope that's what they take away. Thanks for watching, everybody. Bye.