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It’s been a decade since Zoe Saldaña last attended the Cannes Film Festival, and the actor has enjoyed quite an eventful trip. In town this year to debut Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez—one of the buzziest films of the festival—Saldaña tells Vogue that she was thrilled to hit the Croisette’s famous red carpet once again. “The opportunity to come back and to be in competition makes my heart so full,” she says. “It’s the type of festival where films from all over the world come together. You’re exposed to cinema that is global, you meet incredible filmmakers, and you also get to share space with incredible creatives worldwide.”
The star certainly picked the right project to mark her return to Cannes. Costarring Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, Emilia Perez earned a nine-minute standing ovation at its premiere this weekend. (The film follows a feared drug-cartel boss who undergoes gender-confirmation surgery.) For Saldaña, it was the original script—and the opportunity to work with director Audiard—that instantly drew her to the film. “He’s a wonderful storyteller,” she says. “I find his subjects quite engaging, as well as the actors he works with, whether they’re well-known or nonactors, and his tendency [to shoot] in a way that the stories almost feel real and like a documentary but also very compelling, very intimate. He’s always been a bucket-list director for me.”
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In the film Saldaña plays Rita, a lawyer in Mexico City hired by the cartel kingpin, Manitas (Gascón), to help him flee Mexico so that he can transition. “Rita makes decisions that by all means are not right,” Saldaña says. “[But] once you’re in her shoes, it’s easy to find yourself justifying her choices. I was deeply compelled to step into her world and understand why. I wanted to explore what [she] would do given her circumstances and the opportunities presented to her.”
Though she shared little screen time with Gomez, who plays Manitas’s wife, Jessi, Saldaña enjoyed connecting with the fellow actor on set. “We barely had scenes together, but there was a decent amount of bonding off-screen and getting to meet her as a human being,” she says of Gomez. “She’s just warm. She’s so hardworking and committed to her craft. It was such a treat to get to know her.”
Given the epic scope of the film—did we mention it’s a musical?—it was only natural that Saldaña brought a stellar fashion moment to its grand premiere. Styled by Petra Flannery (with hair by Aviva Perea and makeup by Vera Steimberg), Saldaña’s look included a Saint Laurent black crepe column gown with pink silk taffeta bows and an overskirt, inspired by a dress from the Saint Laurent archives. “[Petra] looked into the archives of vintage Saint Laurent and found this wonderful dress from the early ’80s and proposed it to Anthony and his team,” says Saldaña. “Getting to modernize this vintage design shows how timeless the house of Saint Laurent is. I loved the silhouette on my body.” She accessorized it with Boucheron jewels.
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It wasn’t the only statement look that Saldaña brought to Cannes this week, either; she’s also been spotted in cutout dresses and a structured double-breasted jacket and pencil skirt from Saint Laurent. “There’s so much freedom in Cannes to be as creative as you want, as loud, sexy, or subtle as you want,” says Saldaña. “I love exercising that right, that privilege.”
As her time in the South of France winds down, she looks forward to learning into the fun. “From the moment I said yes with Jacques, it’s been special,” she reflects. “It’s been worth every moment, every sacrifice, every rehearsal, every training. So I would love to sort of finish off here in Cannes with that same level of enthusiasm and excitement!”
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