Emilia Pérez director didn't know what Selena Gomez looked like before casting her
Jacques Audiard was instantly won over when he met the pop superstar for the first time.
Given her status as a global pop sensation – not to mention popular star of Only Murders in the Building – there can't be too many people in the world who wouldn't recognise Selena Gomez.
But, believe it or not, until relatively recently one of those people was Jacques Audiard, the director of new movie musical Emilia Pérez, which stars Gomez, Zoë Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón and has just arrived on Netflix.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the release, the acclaimed French auteur – whose previous films include A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped and The Sisters Brothers – revealed that he knew very little about Gomez before meeting her for a casting discussion.
But it didn't take long for him to understand her appeal.
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"I didn't actually know much about Selena Gomez's career – I didn't even really know what she looked like physically," he explained, via a translator.
"And she was introduced to me in New York, and as soon as I saw her, I knew she was right for the role. It was just this kind of love at first sight."
He added: "I was just starstruck meeting her. She comes across as someone who's quite strong, but that's also quite vulnerable, that we want to protect."
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In the film, Gomez plays the wife of the title character (Gascón), who becomes estranged after her partner undergoes gender affirming surgery and fakes her own death.
Later in the film, the two come into contact again, but Emilia poses as a long-lost aunt and Jessi is unaware that she is the same person she had previously been married to.
In our five-star review of the film, we called it a "a musical that redefines what's possible in the genre" and praised the "forceful" performances of Gomez and Saldaña, as well as the "masterful" turn by Gascón in the lead role.
Emilia Pérez is now streaming on Netflix – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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