For Emilia Perez star Karla Sofía Gascón, playing the title role was something she knew she had to fight for. But she didn’t just want to play Emilia – she also insisted on playing the character before her gender reassignment surgery, when she was known as Manitas del Monte, a violent and overtly masculine Mexican cartel boss.

“I knew I was ready to show, as an example, as they say in Spain,” she says, laughing as she talks to Entertainment Weekly. “I proposed (who plays both roles) to (director) Jacques (Audiard) because I knew I could do it really well.”

In the lively, delightfully bold and soapy musical, Manitas fakes his own death with the help of beleaguered lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldana) and transitions into the woman they always wanted to be. After years in hiding, Emilia emerges, homesick for her family – wife Jessie (Selena Gomez) and their two young sons — she left behind. So she hires Rita once again to reunite her with her family while keeping her secret.

In an interview in Spanish and translated into English, Gascón tells EW why she wanted to play Emilia before and after her transition and what she hopes audiences will take away from the film’s Mexican themes.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you insist on playing Emilia before and after her transition?

KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN: There are a lot of things that the film talks about without being direct, so that’s why I wanted to have the experience of doing both parts. You are right, I insisted on doing both roles because I know my abilities and I knew I was ready to para muestra un botón basta (show as an example), as they say in Spain, that I had the ability to play the character. When you know what you want to do and that you can do it, fight for it. That’s one piece of advice I can give to everyone: to go for what they believe in, for their dreams and for what they think they can do well. But, say if I had studied astronomy, I would be the one who wants to go to space, right? That’s why I (as a trans woman) wanted to do both parts.

Did playing both roles influence you in any way?

The journey with both roles for me has been amazing and in a way a dream because it allowed me to experience being human in both forms. To be more clear, the experience of the polarities that separate us, that should not separate us, from the masculine and the feminine, a bit of good and evil, and of violence and love. It’s a beautiful game to be able to go into something so deep and so well constructed. Because we ran the risk that if (the film) had been in any other way, it could have been very, let’s say, very superficial. In the end, it has been a wonderful experience to have participated in such an important project. I’ve loved representing both parts of this character because I think they give him an arc, which can rarely be achieved by acting alone. Being able to interpret a person like this is quite a challenge for any type of actor or actress.

How do you hope Latinos and Latin America will receive the film and its themes?

I think a wonderful thing has happened outside of the performances. Socially, a kind of pineapple has been created around society and around my character. Everyone is looking forward to seeing her, hoping that wonderful things will happen to her and also hoping that Spanish is finally heard more in the world as well. I think on many, many occasions the Latino community feels ignored or relegated. So, minority after minority after trans minority have gathered around me because I feel like I represent so many minorities. At the end of the day, we Hispanics are such a mountain of love and emotion.

Netflix has a huge audience worldwide. Do you think the world is open and ready to discover Latin American and Latin American cinema?

Latin America has so many wonders everywhere, and Mexico is full of amazing things that people don’t know about. The first time I went to Mexico I felt ignorant. I had gone with the idea that it was the land they had sold me in the old movies, that it was a desert with four gentlemen with hats and mustaches and cacti everywhere. But then I began to discover a land full of wonders, full of wealth, wonderful archeology and Mayan Aztec culture. You go all over Latin America and discover that there is so much to discover. What can I tell you about the Incas? What can I tell you about all the natural and architectural beauties that they have in all parts of South America, Central America and North America? We also have a language. It is incredible that we have not even appreciated the cultural wealth both in Spain and in the world… We should be more united sometimes than we are. I think we have many things to give to the world, many things to learn, and obviously many things to improve, but I believe we are one. We are people who want to work and get ahead and enjoy life.

What did you learn from this movie that you hope to take with you from now on? Do you want to make a film in the USA?

I want to work with people who offer me the most beautiful characters and I will go anywhere! If the job is in Hollywood, I go to Hollywood. If it’s Taiwan, I’ll go to Taiwan! Doing new and different things fills me with enthusiasm, but it also has an element that is very tiring, which is starting over and over and over again. Actors and actresses in the end, we always start. This project ends and in the end you have to prove it again in the next job and then again. It is a very hard and very long road, but also very beautiful.

Emilia Perez now streaming on Netflix.