With Emilia Pérez, Zoe Saldaña Takes Center Stage—Again

Regardless of what happens this awards season, Zoe Saldaña feels like she’s already won big-time. As Emilia Pérez’s Rita Mora Castro, a lawyer who helps a drug kingpin fake his own death in order to transition to a woman and live her most authentic life, Saldaña sings and dances her way through a determined and deeply human performance—one that led her to be named Best Actress alongside her costars Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón, and Adriana Paz at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. And yet Saldaña, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, initially wasn’t the woman director Jacques Audiard had in mind for the role. “I felt like I was not right for the part, but there was something pulling me to the project,” she says. Here, the 46-year-old Golden Globe nominee discusses how she ultimately connected with Rita, her unforgettable turn in the cult favorite Center Stage, and how her years of dance have shaped her career.

Jacques Audiard said he had a different idea in his head for your character until he met you and you changed everything.

It’s a big compliment, and I’m very grateful. Rita, on paper, was supposed to be of Mexican origin, but I just felt that I could play her because I understood that desperation to be something, to be seen, to be heard, and to be appreciated for your passion. This character was already very talented, street-smart, and experienced, but also feeling very empty. She was looking for something.

The film allows you to showcase your dance background. How old were you when you started ballet?

I was 11 years old. I didn't really get on pointe until I was 14, and my pointe work was quite bad. It takes a lot of courage to admit when you don't have the feet. I had the extensions, I had the body, I had the length, but I didn't have the feet. It didn't matter how hard I worked at it. I did it for 10 years vigorously, sometimes six hours a day. Ballet became my therapy, my medicine, my confidant, my solace during a time when I was going through a lot. My father passed away when I was 9, and my mom went through a really difficult time. There were days when she couldn't get out of bed because she was so sad. When you're 9, you don't really understand that, but she knew that she needed to keep us busy. So I started ballet, and I went full throttle into it because I needed it.

Was it difficult to switch to acting?

I had a moment, when I was almost 18, when I realized I wasn’t going to shatter that glass ceiling and become a prima ballerina. I didn’t have it in me to be in the corps. And there was also the curiosity of using my voice—the only instrument that I wasn’t using when I was dancing. Acting was a transition that I wanted to make. But I still carry myself as a dancer. I am very militant when I approach experiences and projects and events in my life. I am also very hard on myself. Dancers can be really, really hard on themselves. But that self-discipline—I haven't experienced any sport or art form that teaches you discipline the way ballet does.

You ended up starring in the 2000 dance film Center Stage. How did that come about?

I was plucked out of the scene of young up-and-coming actors in New York City in the late '90s, and that was amazing. I had been a part of an episode of Law & Order and some commercials, and I was auditioning like crazy because the casting directors in New York are so fucking great. When they believe in you, they believe in you. The casting director for Center Stage just kept calling me back.

Have you watched it recently?

Now that I'm older, I'm going to try to watch things that I've been a part of. It's just very difficult for me to watch it and be objective about it because I am really critical with myself. But I do remember that time in my life, shooting around Lincoln Center and working with New York City Ballet dancers and ABT dancers and all those amazing choreographers, from Christopher Wheeldon to Susan Stroman. It was a wonderful time.

You have three young sons; have you gotten them into ballet?

I'm trying. I'm not going to give up. Studies have shown that it is so therapeutic for men to take any form of dance at a very early age or throughout their lives because they carry so much tension and emotion. At least my twins are tapping. My younger one, he couldn't give a shit who is dancing. He wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo; he wants to be Lionel Messi. But my twins are very much like, "Yo, girls are in there? They're dancing hip-hop?" And they'll dance.

What is your secret skill?

I am very good at parallel parking. My older sister Mariel was a paramedic and drove an ambulance for 12 years in New York City, so she taught me how to park. And I married a European man who literally knows how to do a lot in small spaces. I'm also a good cook. I'm passionate about food.

What's your signature dish?

Anything Latin. I can do rice and beans like nobody's business. I tend to judge people by how they make rice. That's a true confession. Rice is such an essential part of a Latino household that when you don't know how to make rice, I don't think I can be friends with you. I don't think I can go to your house and eat your food.

What movie makes you cry?

A lot of movies make me cry. My Life as a Dog makes me cry. Man on Fire makes me cry. It's the relationship between Denzel's character and Dakota Fanning's character. It's just Tony Scott had a way of creating love stories in the most chaotic of people and chaotic of events. And Rust and Bone made me cry a lot. But I am a Gemini, and I'm 46, and I'm perimenopausal, so it's not difficult to make me cry. And I'm very proud of that, by the way.

And what are Geminis like?

I don't know. I just know that this is who I am. People are so quick to tell me what they think about Geminis. And I would like to say, if you have something negative to say about Geminis, please keep it to yourself. Because I only know great Geminis, but I've never dated a Gemini, so I can't speak for that.

Who was your celebrity crush when you were growing up?

Prince and Annie Lennox. There was just something androgynous about them. I love a woman who’s masculine and a man who is feminine. I find that to be really sexy.

Where was your first kiss?

It was with a girl. I must have been 13 or 14. I was that girl who said, “Let's play house.” And that's why I wasn't invited to play at people's houses! So I was already kissing a whole bunch of girls by the time I was 13, 14. Girls are such better kissers.

Makeup by Mark Carrasquillo at R3 MGMT. Makeup assistants: Nanase Ito, Claire Brooke.

Style Director: Allia Alliata di Montereale. Hair for portfolio by Paul Hanlon at Dawes & Co.; makeup for portfolio by Sam Visser at Art Partner; manicures for portfolio by Michelle Saunders James. Set design by Gerard Santos at Lalaland.

Creative producer to Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott: Leonard Cuinet-Petit at January Productions; producer to Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott: Kevin Isabelle; produced by AP Studio, Inc.; executive producer: Alexis Piqueras; producer: Anneliese Kristedja; associate producer: Kimmy D’Ancona; production manager: Hayley Stephon; production coordinators: Miranda Dos Santos, Susan Lucas; photography assistants: John Neate, Jed Barnes, Chris Whitaker, Kendall Peck; digital technician: Niccolo Pacilli; digital assistant: Cassian Gray; postproduction by Dreamer Post Production; fashion assistants: Tyler VanVranken, Molly Cody, Celeste Roh, Raea Palmieri, Tatiana Isshac, Haleigh Nickerson, Lauren Marron, Savannah Steilner, Sage McKee, Frankie Benkovic, Kaley Azambuja, Tatum Sanchez; production assistants: Gigi Rosenfield, Lily Cordingley, Eli Cash, Lex Vaughn, Anderson Renno, Kat Saravia, Kyle Dekker, Wyatt Noble, Brandon Martin, Moose Krupski, Josh Muwwakkil, Bradley Gonsalves, Drew Carter, Thomas Lynch, Alex Kofman, Jackson Schrader, Anatalia Zavaleta, Joseph Wride, Matt Flynn; first AD: Steve Kemp; location manager: Kyle Hollinger; hair assistants: Kim Garduno, Ben Gregory, Marco Iafrate, Hyacinthia Faustino, Chris Foster; makeup assistants: Shimu Takanori, Laura Dudley, Brian Dean, Beatrice Sandoval; manicure assistant: Cheyenne Vander Schuur; set design assistants: Seth Powsner, Denver Stoddard, Ryan Johnson; tailors: Irina Tshartaryan, Ripsime Vartanyan, Jackie Martirosyan at Susie’s Custom Designs, Inc.