Zoe Saldañais one of the highest-grossing film actresses of all time, largely due to her work in major franchises such asStar Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy,andAvatar.However, these are substantial time commitments, keeping her from appearing in a wider variety of roles. While talking withWomen’s Wear Daily, Saldaña admitted that she felt ‘stuck’ doing these roles for the last decade:
“I feel that for the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been just stuck. I felt stuck doing these franchises… I’m very grateful for the opportunities that they provided, from collaborating with amazing directors and getting to meet cast members that I consider friends and getting to play a role that fans, especially children, love. But it also meant that I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles.”
Her recent roles include Nyota Uhura in theStar Trekreboot franchise, which consists of three films; Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spans four films and an upcoming fifth; and Neytiri in theAvatarfranchise, in which she’s done work on four films already. She doesn’t regret acting in these major blockbusters - far from it. But these take up a monumental amount of time, which is something Saldaña used to find “exciting” but has since changed her mind:
“There was a time where it was so exciting to… know that I was one of the hardest working people… Now I’m actually embarrassed because this whole idea of productivity and overproducing yourself too much is just a lot.”
Related:Zoe Saldana Reflects on Surreal Audition Process for Avatar
Saldaña Reflects onFrom Scratch: ‘I’m So Happy I Did It’
Despite her busy filming schedule, Zoe Saldaña found time to branch out and challenge herself. One of her more nuanced projects is the Netflixlimited seriesFrom Scratch,which began streaming several weeks ago. Here, she portrays a Texan who travels to Italy and falls in love with a local chef, played by Eugenio Mastrandrea. The part is a far cry from her traditional roles, eschewing far-off planets and alien costumes for a much more down-to-earth drama, literally. Speaking to WWD, Saldaña discussed the show:
“You know what I loved — I loved that so many people were so brave to stick through the whole show, even though they knew they were going to just open themselves up and hurt and just find themselves living in that feeling and that sensation of complete sadness and seeing, and they still did it… I’m so happy I did it… I gave it my all and it feels good.”
Zoe Saldaña’s upcoming movies includeAvatar: The Way of Water,which releases on Dec. 16, andGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,with a premiere set for May 5th, 2023. The Netflix seriesFrom Scratchalso began streamingon Oct. 21.
