Zoe Saldaña has worked with several of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors over the years, including James Cameron and J.J. Abrams, but one in particular “restored her faith” in the industry: Steven Spielberg.
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Saldaña featured in Spielberg’s 2004 comedy-drama “The Terminal” alongside Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, which came right after her first big-budget role in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Saldaña has been open about her experience on the set of “Pirates” not being the best, and during a Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday, she said it almost caused her to “tip overboard.”
“I knew with that experience the kind of people that I wanted to work with,” Saldaña said of “Pirates.” “The crew and the cast, they’re 99% of the time super marvelous. But if the studio and the producers and the director, they’re not leading with kindness and awareness and consideration, then that big of a production can become a really bad experience and you may tip overboard. And I kind of did.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the experience in 2022, Saldaña said: “I walked away not really having a good experience from it overall. I felt like I was lost in the trenches of it a great deal, and I just didn’t feel like that was OK.” Years later, producer Jerry Bruckheimer personally apologized to her.
Luckily, she had “The Terminal” lined up next. “I worked with Steven Spielberg eight months later, and he restored my faith that big can also be great,” Saldaña said.
She remembered feeling “so good and so safe” on set and recalled how Spielberg would play music over the loudspeakers in between scenes to make sure everyone was “synchronized and on the same page.” That’s how she discovered the work of Nino Rota, an Italian composer best known for scoring many of cinema great Federico Fellini’s films. As she and Spielberg discussed Rota’s work and its importance to filmmaking, the director told her something she’s never forgotten: “In order for you to know where you are, you have to know where you came from.”
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The “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” star is currently making the press rounds for her new movie “Emilia Pérez.” Directed by Jacques Audiard, the musical crime comedy tells the story of Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón), a drug cartel leader who enlists Rita (Saldaña) to help her fake her death and undergo gender-affirming surgery. Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir and Édgar Ramírez also star in the film, which was selected by France as its submission for the international feature Oscar.
“Yes, there’s a trans life in this movie and these individuals navigate worlds that are very dark and dangerous, but that’s not the overall takeaway,” Saldaña said. “It’s a story of four women being on this journey to become their most authentic selves and be free and be loved.”
When “Emilia Pérez” first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Saldaña, Gascón, Gomez and Paz won the best actress award, which Saldaña said she “needed so much.”
“That sort of visibility let me understand how invisible I had been feeling so long,” Saldaña said, sounding as if she was holding back tears. “I love what I do, but sometimes you just need a sign that you’re going in the right direction.”
“Emilia Pérez” will release on Netflix Nov. 13.
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