She expands our imagination by portraying otherworldly characters in Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek and the multi-billion dollar Avengers and Avatar franchises. Zoe Saldaña has starred in so many sci-fi blockbusters that she has broken the earthly record of being the only actress to appear in the top three highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Path. water.”
Playing characters with green or blue skin, she says, gave her life: “I can take my children to a cafe, and, of course, sometimes they recognize me. And sometimes not.”
“Does this give you some anonymity?” asked Doan.
“Yes!”
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Saldaña, a New Yorker of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, says she was drawn to science fiction as a child but feared it would limit her career. “There was always a fear: if I said yes, would I be considered for other roles by other directors?”
“If you took on these sci-fi roles, were you worried that it would have a negative (effect)?”
“To be the same type? Yes,” she replied. “And I’ve already been told about limiting the careers of a woman of color, a woman. And it’s still a shaky genre.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know, ‘Oh, you’re in these superhero movies.’
But these “superhero movies” were good. She said: “I blinked and I was part of the biggest franchises in the world. And they gave me so much. But I still wanted to explore more.”
That’s what brought Saldana to Morocco and the set of the spy thriller “SWAT: Lioness,” which will be released next week on Paramount+ (a division of our parent company). She plays the head of a CIA station.
To watch the trailer for SWAT: Lioness, click on the video player below:
Doan asked, “How much of this was a concerted attempt to do something different?”
“I think that was the main reason,” she replied. “This is another item I need to cross off my bucket list.
“There are a lot of things on that bucket list,” she said. Such as? I’m working with Taylor Sheridan, producer of the popular series “Yellowstone” and its prequels. “And Nicole Kidman. Morgan Freeman. And wanting to challenge myself, I wanted to see if I had it in me.”
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She plays the main role, a mother with a responsible job. It’s a familiar juggling act for the 45-year-old, who has three children with Italian artist Marco Perego-Saldanha. On the day of Doane’s visit, they were on set with Saldana’s relatives.
A similar scene happened when we met later in Paris, where she was filming.
Saldana was nine years old when her father died. Her mother, Asalia Nazario, worked (sometimes as a hotel housekeeper) to raise Zoe and her two sisters. Nazario told Doan, “You pray for God to guide them and make their dreams come true. And Zoya’s dreams were very, very big. So I prayed harder for her!”
Along with her sisters, Saldana runs Cinestar Pictures, a production company promoting underrepresented storylines. She admits to her own mistakes when it comes to representation after portraying music legend Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic Nina. Saldaña faced harsh criticism for wearing a prosthetic nose and wearing makeup that darkened her skin.
“I should never have accepted this role,” she said. “I’m black. No one will ever tell me how to be black. But as a person of Afro-Latino and African descent, I have to understand how complex this conversation needs to be in order for me to promote accurate portrayals of women. colors”.
Doane said: “I’ve read interviews before where you supported the decision to portray her; does it seem that your opinion on this matter has actually changed as a result of the controversy?”
“Yes,” she replied, becoming excited. “I was attacked so aggressively and my instinct was to defend myself. It’s very scary when you are bullied to the extent that I was. Plus, I grew up listening to her and felt like she was singing to me. Because if I don’t fit into this world, what other world do I fit into? Definitely not a white man’s world. So it was, um, it was very isolating, very painful and scary. And growth comes from this. “
“Why do you think it affected you so much all these years later?”
“Because I still love Nina Simone,” Saldaña said. “I would really like to listen to her music.”
“You stopped listening – why?”
“I felt, uh, I felt like I hurt her.”
Saldaña told us that it was important to her to provide opportunities for everyone, as she had to endure being rejected from a casting call. “It was always in a very soft form, like, ‘Oh, the director really liked you, but he wants to stick to tradition.’
– What do you think this means? asked Doan.
“I just meant that I don’t look American. I wasn’t white. But obviously they don’t say that. They just say, “Well, but the director just wants to keep the tradition.” ‘”
This led her to the genre that caught her attention from the very beginning. “Well, what genres, you know, where I can get around this? Action. Science fiction”.
For now, she’s focusing on more terrestrial roles, both on and off camera.
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The story was produced by Michaela Bufano. Editor: Brian Robbins.