Zoe Saldaña Opens Up About Sci-Fi Typecast Fears, How James Cameron Helped Her Book ‘Star Trek’

Zoe Saldaña has opened up about her concerns over being typecast as a sci-fi actor throughout her career but credits landing one of those roles to her Avatar director, James Cameron.

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Saldaña has proved a popular choice for out-of-this-world cinema in the 21st century, bagging major roles in Cameron’s big-budget sci-fi eco-thriller, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek revival movies and, later, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy as green-skinned alien warrior Gamora.

The actress, who most recently won a shared best actress prize in Cannes for her performance in Emilia Pérez alongside Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, spoke at a BFI London Film Festival event Saturday about Abrams visiting the Avatar set.

“I knew he was casting for Star Trek ,” she began. “He and Jim were talking, and they come to set, and Jim lets him hold his little camera that he built. And I remember talking to J.J., and he’s like, ‘I’m going to call you, I really want to have a conversation with you.’ And then he walks away. And Jim comes over and goes, ‘I just booked your next job.'”

Saldaña continued. “I went into Guardians with a lot of fear of being typecast because it would have been my third round in the universe, and I guess my team was worried for me. But reading that script, there was just something about the anti-hero, the a-hole that saves the day, reluctantly, that I had never seen before.”

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She also revealed how Steven Spielberg “restored” her faith in the film industry after a “bad experience” on the Pirates of the Caribbean set, helmed by Gore Verbinski. “The crew, the cast, 99 percent of the time, are super marvelous,” she said. “But if the studio, the producers and the director…if they’re not leading the kindness and awareness and consideration, then that big production can become a really bad experience. And you may tip overboard, and I kind of did.”

Eight months later, Saldaña worked on The Terminal with Spielberg. “After I had done Pirates , he restored my faith,” she noted.

She was seemingly emotional when discussing her win in Cannes, which the star said she didn’t realize how much she needed. “I didn’t even know how I needed it so much,” she said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re just throwing spaghetti on the wall in the hope that something sticks. That visibility let me understand how invisible I had been feeling for so many years and trying to find a purpose again, in art and to love what I do. Sometimes you just need a sign you’re going in the right direction.”

The BFI London Film Festival, which screens Jacques Audiard ’s Emilia Pérez , runs Oct. 9-20.

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