Trivia

When it won for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy at the 2025 Golden Globes ceremony, Luca Guadagnino, whose film Challengers was also in contention, walked out of the room.

While promoting Emilia Pérez, Selena Gomez said in several interviews that she's not fluent in Spanish and did not feel happy about her Spanish in this film. After criticism for the bad Spanish pronunciation of actress, the studio started a campaign saying that the character was not Mexican, but American, but that is never pointed out in the movie, even mentioning that the character is from Monterrey, Mexico. She switches from Spanish to English in all of her scenes in the film.

Just like her character in the film, Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón is also a trans woman in real life. This is the first film she starred in as an actress after announcing her transition in 2018. Before that, she had a long career as a male-presenting actor in Spain and especially in Mexico.

Upon its release, the film was criticized for its lack of the native representation both in the cast and crew and for not paying attention to details like the use of words such as 'Cárcel' instead of 'Penitenciaria' in a scene showing the prison. Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez said it was odd for a director that doesn't speak English or Spanish directing a film in such languages, set in Mexico, without understanding the culture, adding that American actors speaking Spanish with no proper knowledge of the words was distracting and lacked truth.

Jacques Audiard said he became inspired for the idea of the musical from a chapter in a novel about a drug trafficker who yearns to change his identity. It was Boris Razon's 2018 novel 'Écoute' ("Listen").