How ‘Emilia Pérez’ Star Karla Sofia Gascón Transformed Into a Menacing Drug Lord

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Spoiler alert. That’s actress Karla Sofia Gascón playing both roles in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez.” The film, now streaming on Netflix, follows Emilia (Karla Sofia Gascón), a feared drug lord who seeks the help of a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), to fake her death and undergo gender-affirming surgery.

Gascón portrays a fearsome drug lord before Emilia’s transition. It took a team of artisans who considered Mickey Rourke’s character Randy Robinson in “The Wrestler” to be the prime inspiration.

From beginning to end, creating Emilia’s pre-transition look took three hours; an hour and a half of that was prosthetics application.

Prosthetic pieces were applied to Gascón’s nose, jawline and cheeks to make her look as masculine as possible. Makeup department head Julia Floch Carbonel worked closely with SFX makeup artist Jean Christophe Spadaccini to experiment with different noses, damaged skin and hairstyles.