Meet the cast of “Emilia Pérez”, Netflix's genre-defying musical thriller (and major awards contender)

Jacques Audiard's acclaimed film features Hollywood veterans and fresh faces alike.

For those who think they've seen every version of the criminal-on-the-run thriller, Emilia Pérez has something new in store.

Jacques Audiard’s new musical-drama, now streaming on Netflix, stars Zoë Saldaña as a lawyer who is approached by cartel kingpin Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) with a peculiar request: He wants her help faking his death, obtaining gender-affirming surgery, and beginning a new life as Emilia Pérez. The move upends the previously comfortable life of Del Monte’s wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), who embarks on her own transformation and an affair with a suave cowboy (Édgar Ramírez).

Audiard’s film is generating ample awards buzz. The writer-director won the coveted Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival when Emilia Pérez debuted in May 2024, while Gascón, Saldaña, Gomez, and Adriana Paz shared the Best Actress honor.

Read on for an overview of the accomplished Emilia Pérez cast and the characters they play.

Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez

A veteran of telenovelas, Karla Sofía Gascón is also known for her role in the film The Noble Family (2013). She became the first openly trans person to receive a major honor at the Cannes Film Festival with her shared Best Actress win for Emilia Pérez in 2024.

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, Gascón called Audiard’s film “such a great gift, and I’m so proud to be part of it.” She continued, "Emilia Pérez is a phenomenal role. It’s a dream role that is hard to find because it has so much depth, so much richness. And for an actor to get into it, it needs a lot of dedication, and a lot of work because you have two voices that also sing with a Mexican accent. It is so huge.”

Related: Emilia Pérez is a joyfully erratic opera swirled with a soapy melodrama

Zoë Saldaña as Rita

Zoë Saldaña has transformed herself for roles in several blockbuster franchises — as Neytiri in the Avatar series; Gamora in the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy movies; and Uhura in J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboots — in addition to smaller productions like Crossroads (2002) and Colombiana (2011). She also appeared in Netflix's The Adam Project (2022) and leads the Paramount+ series Special Ops: Lioness.

Though Saldaña’s career has been consistently varied, Emilia Pérez represents a departure for the actress. “It was described to me as this film noir that didn’t really exist in any of the conventional kind of genres, but it was a musical,” she told Tadum. “It was actually an opera, and based in a crime world, but there was going to be a sense of justice, and validation, and sanctification. And I was just like, ‘What?’ I had to read it more than once. And then, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Selena Gomez as Jessi

Selena Gomez has long been a household name for millennials and Gen Z, rising to fame as Alex Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). In addition to her three studio albums as a pop singer, she's received four Emmy nominations for executive producing and starring in Only Murders in the Building (2021–present). Her notable films include Spring Breakers (2012), Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York (2019), and voice work in the animated Hotel Transylvania movies.

Beyond allowing Gomez to play a more mature character than in her previous work, Emilia Pérez was the first time the American Mexican actress predominantly spoke Spanish for a role. "I think it was something I was always eager to do and something I was dying to do, and I was beyond myself," she told Screen Rant. "I was very humbled. I felt like I could reconnect to a part of myself that I feel got buried in all of my other work. So, this was really a special moment for me."

Related: What to Watch this week: Cobra Kai nears its end, Oscar contender Emilia Pérez debuts

Édgar Ramírez as Gustavo

Venezuelan-born actor Édgar Ramírez began his career playing Cacique Chacón on the telenovela Cosita Rica before getting acquainted with American audiences in Domino (2005) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). He received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations as assassin Carlos the Jackal in Carlos (2010) and as the titular character in The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018). Ramírez has also appeared in Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Jungle Cruise (2021), and Borderlands (2024).

In Emilia Pérez, Gomez's Jessi has a whirlwind affair with Ramírez's Gustavo. “To be in this intense, beautiful, tender, strange, unpredictable love story with Selena was amazing,” the actor raved to Hola. “It was so beautiful performing with such a courageous actress — so raw, so open, so committed. It was delicious.”

Adriana Paz as Epifanía

Adriana Paz made a name for herself as Toña in the Mexican comedy Rudo y Cursi (2008). She is known for the series Capadocia (2010) and Vis a Vis (2018–2019) as well as films like La Tirisia (2014), La Caridad (2016), and El Autor (2017). An entertainment industry veteran, Paz is seeing her biggest exposure to American audiences yet with Emilia Pérez as the title character's love interest, Epifanía.

She credited her fellow actresses with making her feel comfortable in character. “It was beautiful and easy for me working with the three of them — Selena, Zoë, and Karla, too,” Paz told Film Updates. “They are not just wonderful actresses and artists but they are great people. And that’s what we all want... sharing your work and your space with good people, kind people."

Emilia Pérez is now streaming on Netflix.