Now, I've seen them both give performances in that language that could win them awards.
Saldana and Gomez have both been nominated for supporting actress Golden Globes for Emilia Perez, though you could argue that Saldana's role is more that of a typical lead actress. Maybe you could also argue that you can't be the lead actress in a film that gets its title from the name of one of the other female characters (even if she starts off as male). Anyway, Saldana's is the first character we meet, and we don't meet the titular character until something like 20 minutes in. I'm sure Saldana and Gomez are receiving their flowers from other critical bodies as well.
The point is, nothing I've seen them do in their professional careers so far has required an ounce of Spanish from them, though it could just be that I've watched the wrong things.
The cultural heritage of Gomez is obvious, given her name. I think it's a bit more unclear with Saldana, though not primarily because she has the more uncommon last name. Rather, the roles that she's played, if they have emphasized anything, have emphasized her darker skin color, suggesting her more as Black than Latina. (Which Emilia Perez actually makes reference to in one line of sung dialogue. You can certainly be both, but in American culture, we are often eager to assign a person one dominant cultural heritage, pushing the other to the background, if present at all.)
Unlike some other actresses of clear Latina heritage, like Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz, neither of these women speak English with a strong accent, nor do they have a significant history of non-English language performances. There's a good reason for that. Since both were born in the U.S. -- Saldana in New Jersey, Gomez in Texas -- they don't have an accent nor (m)any Spanish language roles.
Saldana's debut was in a 1999 episode of Law & Order, followed by her theatrical debut the next year in the movie Center Stage. Happy 25 years in the industry, Zoe. There's some history of using her Latina heritage in her roles, as she played a character named Anamaria as long ago as Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. In 2005, she appeared in a film called La Maldicion del Padre Cardona, which does not even have an English translation on IMDB, and I would not be surprised if her Spanish was used at least fleetingly in a film like Colombiana, which I have not seen. Overall, though, professional uses of her Spanish would be very limited, if not entirely absent outside of the one obviously Spanish language title listed above.
The 14 years younger Gomez debuted in 2003 in a Barney video -- or at least, her 2003 credits show that first on IMDB. The same year she was in the third Spy Kids movie, which does have a Latin flavor through director Robert Rodriguez, but considering that she is credited as "Water Park Girl," it's doubtful that she was being used in that way. She then became involved in the Disney machine, which at that time would not have needed any Spanish from her (though they are probably slightly more worldly in their approach today). And after that it's just a succession of her own videos and then English language roles.
When you are as successful as these women are, you don't really need to do the equivalent of famous Australian actors coming home to work in smaller films made in their home country. Saldana has been a part of three of the biggest franchises of the 21st century, with prominent roles in the Avatar movies, the Star Trek movies and the MCU. (You can throw in Pirates of the Caribbean too if you want.) Gomez doesn't have that prominence as an actor, but is likely the bigger known personality because of her pop music stardom. Personal favorites of mine include Spring Breakers and the TV show Only Murders in the Building.
It's nice to see both of them go back to -- well, maybe not their roots, but the roots of their parents, in any case. Because I am so unaccustomed to seeing them in this mode, it almost seems like some kind of party trick, as when Jodie Foster appears in French-speaking roles. It seems impressive even if they did actually grow up bilingual, which I could not say for sure.
The one thing I do wonder, though, is if a native Spanish speaker would watch these movies and consider their accents awful, or would notice them struggling with certain turns of phrase or other uses of the language.
I guess since they both have been nominated for awards by an international body of critics, the Golden Globes, their performances likely pass the sniff test. Then again, the last time we could consider the Golden Globes a respectable indication of anything, maybe neither of these women had yet had their cinematic debuts.
And that also makes me wonder if my high level of affection for Emilia Perez is misplaced. Simply put, this is one of the more unique films I have seen in some time -- not only a movie about a transgender cartel leader, but also a musical. Is it actually great, or is it just something that the Golden Globes fete and everyone else finds inferior?
The IMDB rating for the movies only 6.8/10, though I do wonder if some of that is homophobes and transphobes in the user community trying to sink the rating, as you will see in any "woke" movie. Apparently, there is also some question as to how well the movie handles its trans themes, as indicated in one sort of tone deaf number that everyone agrees is the worst part of the film. (I haven't discussed Emilia Perez with anyone, having only seen the film for the first time last night, but one friend made an off-the-cuff comment that indicates he is not a fan.) In less than a month we'll see if the Oscars follow suit in giving this film its flowers.
I should probably also say: As good as both Saldana and Gomez are in Emilia Perez, the real revelation is the title character herself, trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who was new to me. She has rightly also gotten a Golden Globe nomination, and hopefully Oscar will follow suit as it would allow them to nominate a trans performer in the acting category that performer would favor as aligned with her own gender. Gascon already won a Cannes acting award, which I guess she shared with the rest of the cast.
I'll close with something that was once going to be part of my subject line until I thought better of it. If I had not been in America for Christmas, I'm not sure if I even would have seen Emilia Perez in time to rank it this year.
See, this is the rare example of a Netflix movie that's only playing on U.S. Netflix, or possibly Netflix in some other small selection of countries. I can tell you that when I am in Australia and I search for it, it does not come up -- or rather, it comes up with that message "We don't currently have Emilia Perez but here are some other titles you might like."
It looks as though it doesn't release in Australia until January 16th, just a day before my January 17th deadline, which is when the Oscar nominations are announced. So there is very little chance I would have gotten it in at all, and even if I had, whether it would have been given serious consideration for my top ten as such a late-breaking addition.
But by being in the U.S., I could see it through that same Netflix account that doesn't have it when I'm halfway across the world, and did just that last night.
And now it will have a full month to fend off other contenders for that rightful spot in my top ten.
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