Audiard admits he was only faintly familiar with Gomez, having seen her in Spring Breakers and the Woody Allen film A Rainy Day in New York. But when she auditioned for Emilia Pérez, he knew very quickly that he wanted to hire her. As for Gascón, she was extremely familiar with Gomez, not least because she has a 13-year-old daughter who’s a superfan. “There’s something very special about her,” Gascón says of Gomez. Needless to say, her daughter was excited about the project: “She told me, ‘You better treat her well!’ ”
Gomez says she signed on to Emilia Pérez largely because of Gascón, who plays the drug lord both before her transition and after, pulling off a riveting dual performance. “She actually carried the whole film, and we followed her lead when it came to anything sensitive,” Gomez says. “She challenged me. In some of our scenes, she wasn’t afraid to get in my face. And I loved it because I had to match that energy.”
Both Gascón and Saldaña offered their services if Gomez ever needed help with the dialogue. The film is almost entirely in Spanish, and while they’re native speakers, Gomez herself is not. “Speaking it is not too terrible for me, but I’m not fluent. I would say that I’m okay.” She grew up speaking Spanish but lost fluency around the time she turned seven and that purple dinosaur came into her life: “I got my first job, and everything was English-dominated.”
The musical part of Emilia Pérez came easier. Gomez dove into the singing and the often intense choreography, which meant tapping back into her pop persona. “I can sing Spanish really well,” she says, having released several songs in Spanish, including the 2021 EP Revelación. She enjoyed recording the songs for this film, which were written by French singer and lyricist Camille with Clément Ducol, but wants fans to know she doesn’t have plans to release any new music of her own at the moment. “I don’t know if I’m ready, you know?” she says. “It’s a vulnerable space. Acting has always been my first love. Music is just a hobby that went out of control. Now it is a part of who I am, so I don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’m just not ready yet.”
She’s still keeping tabs on the pop landscape. Gomez got a kick out of Charli XCX’s Brat—particularly the bonus track, “Spring Breakers,” naturally—and she’s going to see shows whenever she can. “I love female artists,” she says. “I’ve been to all the girls’ concerts—Billie, Dua….” And of course, she can always pick up the phone and call Taylor Swift, a longtime friend. “She is really like a big sister to me,” she says. They talk about the industry from time to time, with Gomez seeking advice on music or how to navigate new friendships at their respective levels of fame. More often than not, though, they’re just gossiping about the things that all friends gossip about and comparing notes on the latest season of Vanderpump Rules. “I’m on The Valley now,” Gomez says, referring to the latest—and deeply haunted—spin-off of the Bravo reality series. “I’ve watched every episode of Vanderpump, so I don’t care if it’s bad!”
Whenever she is ready to record her own music again, Gomez also has a direct line to one of pop music’s most prolific producers: Benny Blanco. The two collaborated on the 2015 hit “Same Old Love” and the slinky 2019 track “I Can’t Get Enough,” featuring Tainy and J Balvin. In the music video for the latter song, Gomez wears silky pajamas and dances on an oversized bed; Blanco dances alongside her in a giant teddy bear suit. The two were just friends at the time, but things took a turn for the romantic in July 2023. At first, the pair were relatively low-key, but they’ve since elevated to full-tilt public adoration, sharing mushy Instagram photos and captions of one another. In his most recent public display of affection, Blanco shared a tender throwback photo of him and Gomez on the “I Can’t Get Enough” set: “i used to play a teddy bear in ur music video and now i get to b urs in real life….”
“I’ve never been loved this way. He’s just been a light. A complete light in my life.”
Though they’ve worked together for years, fans seemed surprised that the two were dating, partly because Gomez is laid-back while Blanco, who produced hits like Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” is a world-class yapper. Whatever the connection is—his brash, enthusiastic openness paired with her dry humor—it clearly works. “I’ve never been loved this way,” Gomez tells me. “He’s just been a light. A complete light in my life. He’s my best friend. I love telling him everything.” In May, Howard Stern told Blanco that he hoped the two of them would get married. “You and me both,” Blanco replied. Gomez smiles at the thought of Blanco saying it so bluntly and openly. “He can’t lie,” she says. “After the interview, I was dying laughing. Like, ‘Anything else you wanted to put out there?’ ”
