Selena Gomez Says Dad Is Proud of Her Spanish in ‘Emilia Pérez’

Selena Gomez is making her father proud.

On Monday, Sept. 30, the Only Murders in the Building actress, 32, walked the red carpet for the premiere of her new project Emilia Pérez at the 62nd Annual New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Center. 

During the event, she spoke with Extra about what her dad, Ricardo Joel Gomez, thought of her performance as Jessi Del Monte in the Spanish-language musical comedy, as well as her take on representation in the film. 

“I really feel like this has been such a blessing in this movie. I hope people understand the meaning behind it and enjoy it, and I couldn’t be more grateful to [director] Jacques [Audiard] for giving me this opportunity as an actor, so I hope this is just the beginning,” she told the outlet. 

The “Love On” singer continued, “I had never really performed the kind of dances that were displayed in the movie, but it was fun and it felt like a release, and screaming the songs and just being passionate was great.”

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Gomez then shared why speaking Spanish in the musical was important to her.

“It meant the world to me that he trusted me with that and it meant a lot to my family,” she told Extra, adding that she had help nailing her part in the production.

“I had coaches, yes, and we communicated every day in Spanish, but, yeah, my dad was even so proud. He was like, ‘You’re texting me, mija,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m texting you in Spanish.’ ”

In addition to Gomez, Emilia Pérez also stars Zoe Saldaña, Edgar Ramírez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. 

PEOPLE also spoke with Saldaña, 46, on Monday as she shared her experience working with her cast mates. 

“It’s wonderful,” the actress told PEOPLE exclusively about bonding with her costars. “To this day, there’s so much love, there’s so much respect. We’re rooting for each other. We’re happy for each other. We’re fixing each other’s makeup and wardrobes.”

“You know, every time on the red carpet, we were so excited to be a part of this project to be working with [director] Jacques Audiard that we were kind of childlike when we were shooting Emilia,” Saldaña continued.

Emilia Pérez debuted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in May, winning two awards — including the best actress award for its ensemble of women. 

The film, which is based on Audiard’s opera libretto of the same name, was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this month, where it was named first runner-up to the festival’s People’s Choice Award winner The Life of Chuck.

Emilia Pérez is in select theaters Nov. 1, and begins streaming on Netflix Nov. 13.