Of the various inspiration trips she made to Mexico, Emmanuelle Duplay mainly held on to the colors: the reds, the greens, the purples. The production designer, whose work on the film Emilia Pérez involved reimagining Mexican settings inside a Parisian studio, often refers to these hues when recalling the research that brought Jacques Audiard’s musical universe to life. She speaks of vibrant pinks and the shades we Mexicans associate with clusters of bougainvillea or the rich dyes derived from cochineal insects. 

To her, these colors are the thread that connects the many worlds traversed by the protagonist, Emilia, a transgender woman who leaves behind her life as a drug lord to reinvent herself. “They’re the common thread — colors,” says Duplay. “In the film, we see two levels of Mexico. The lower, impoverished side and the upper, more opulent one when Emilia returns as Emilia. For me, color is the link between them.”

The idea of connection is particularly apt in the context of Emilia Pérez’s production design, where boundaries and borders appear to be nonexistent. The film, which originated as an opera libretto written by Audiard during the pandemic, reimagines Mexican neighborhoods and markets, takes us to the grandeur of a London restaurant, a health clinic in Bangkok, a doctor’s office in Tel Aviv, the snowy mountains of Switzerland, and ultimately brings us back to Mexico, that country of contrasts, bathed in neon colors, religious processions, and lavish banquets.

Audiard and Duplay made four trips to Mexico City to scout various locations but ultimately decided to shoot most of the film on soundstages at the Bry-sur-Marne studios on the outskirts of Paris. This allowed them more creative freedom to build the world of Emilia Pérez from scratch, aided by the filmmakers’ extensive research.

Adriana Paz behind the scenes at La Lucecita

This shift in location shaped the film’s artistic direction and transformed its essence. Not only did it restore the operatic tone Audiard had envisioned from the project’s inception, but it also freed the film from the constraints of realism. In the controlled environment of a studio, Emilia Pérez could exist between reality and fantasy, between gritty circumstances and elaborate choreography and music. “Filming in a studio allowed us to have both,” explains Duplay. “That is to say, [it allowed for] both a very strong abstraction and something very, very realistic. In fact, it was in this mix where we wanted to work.”

As Audiard has expressed before, a studio is like a blank canvas — everything must be created from scratch: the lights, the colors, the atmospheres, and the scale. The challenge lies in avoiding a static or sterile feel, so the artistic team of Emilia Pérez worked to imbue every frame with dynamism while preserving the film’s hybrid soul — a blend of the tangible and the abstract. Together, the director, art department (led by Virginie Montel), and cinematographer Paul Guilhaume (Casa Susanna, 2022) carefully reviewed the script scene by scene to identify the most striking imagery from the outset. “As soon as we had an idea, we would sketch it out in a drawing to explore its potential,” says the production designer.

The sets evolved collaboratively. Duplay worked closely with Guilhaume to design spaces where the light would shift constantly, and conceptualized some sets, like the clinic visited by Zoe Saldaña’s character, a hardworking lawyer named Rita, to accommodate Damien Jalet’s choreographic needs. Other sets were modeled after real-world locations, such as the apartment of Epifanía, played by Mexican actress Adriana Paz, the woman who offers Emilia a second chance at love. “It was really inspired by a setting that existed, one that struck Jacques deeply,” Duplay explains. “We drew from an apartment we had seen in Mexico, perched on a hill, with a cable car passing right outside the window.”

Behind the scenes of the dramatic final car chase scene

A four-time César Award nominee — most recently for her work on Anatomy of a Fall — Duplay admits that Emilia Pérez has been her most challenging film to date, especially due to the speed at which sets needed to transform and the logistical complexities of the shoot. Reflecting on the most demanding set pieces, she recalls the setting that represents a new life for Emilia, seen in the film’s most colorful and luminous sequences: Emilia’s house in Mexico City.

After transitioning, Emilia returns to her homeland with the intention of reclaiming her family and rebuilding a home with them. The luxurious house where she hosts her ex-wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their children is a modern structure with bold colors, clean lines, large walls, and expansive windows that flood the space with light. A railing-free staircase takes center stage in the main hall, a space full of continuous discoveries. 

Fans of modernist Mexican architecture might recognize Duplay’s inspiration; after all, she is an architect by training. “Luis Barragán, whom I love, inspired me greatly in designing Emilia’s house,” confesses the production designer. The renowned Mexican architect is celebrated for the geometry of his buildings, their perpendicular forms, and his use of vibrant, contrasting colors like Mexican pink. 

Barragán, the only Mexican architect to receive the Pritzker Prize, recently entered cinematic conversations as a source of inspiration for cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s vision of Barbie. In Emilia Pérez, Duplay drew from Barragán’s use of traditional colors and his mastery of light. “I made some changes, but I was interested in his rigor. Above all, the way he uses the walls to sculpt the arrival of light,” she shares.

For Duplay, working with Audiard demanded relentless exploration. “That’s what makes working with him so interesting,” she says. “The research never stops. And I think we all pushed beyond our limits because it was a constant requirement — to keep proposing new ideas. It was exciting.”