Zoe Saldaña Reveals the Women Who Inspired Her Stardom
Zoe Saldaña opens up about the two legendary female action heroes who guided her path in Hollywood, reflecting on her blockbuster career and the challenges she’s faced along the way.
Ask around about the top-earning actor at the box office, and you’ll find most punters still reckon it’s a bloke. Even when you hint it’s a woman, the guesses dry up pretty quick. The reality is, the two highest-grossing actors are both women: Scarlett Johansson and Zoe Saldaña. While Johansson’s name might eventually come up thanks to her Marvel gigs and the Jurassic Park franchise, Saldaña’s rarely does, despite her starring in not just Marvel, but also Avatar, Star Trek, and Pirates of the Caribbean. That’s not even counting her recent work in the thriller series Special Ops: Lioness or lending her voice to Pixar’s Elio, all while nabbing an Oscar for her role in the musical Emilia Pérez.
Saldaña’s career has raked in nearly $15 billion at the box office, and with James Cameron’s much-hyped Avatar: Fire and Ash about to hit cinemas, she’s tipped to overtake Johansson soon. Still, she’s not quite a household name like some of her co-stars. She’s pointed out that her background—born in New Jersey with Dominican and Puerto Rican roots—along with the way superhero films are sometimes looked down on, has meant she hasn’t always received the recognition she deserves, even after more than two decades in the industry.
Finding Role Models on Screen
Despite the challenges, Saldaña says she did see herself in the films she watched as a kid, especially in the strong female leads that drew her to acting in the first place.
“I did! As a child, when I saw Sigourney Weaver play Ellen Ripley [in Alien] or Linda Hamilton play Sarah Connor [in Terminator], they were my true north, because I loved action, I loved science fiction, and I loved the roles that they played. They were inspiring to me; I wanted that. It wasn’t until I started in my own career that I was reminded that I wasn’t ‘like’ them.”
She’s always been drawn to action and sci-fi, and those characters set the bar for what she wanted to achieve. It’s only after she started working in the industry that she realised the differences others saw.
Working with James Cameron and Building a Legacy
It’s no small thing that both of Saldaña’s childhood heroes came from James Cameron’s films. Years later, she’d land the lead in his biggest project, Avatar, signing on at just 28. By the time the fifth and final film in the series lands in 2031, she’ll be 54, marking a decades-long run with the same character. She’s spoken about what that means to her:
“It’s a gift to be able to revisit a character that has given me so much. To revisit a place that has been so magical. Not just for me, but for so many people in the world”.
Saldaña’s ongoing work with Cameron has cemented her place in film history, but she’s not slowing down. She’s currently filming the next two Avatar instalments and is set to return as CIA case officer Joe McNamara in the hit series Special Ops: Lioness, which was renewed for a third season and is now in production. Her performance in the show, which follows a real-life team of undercover female operatives, earned her a Critics’ Choice award, with big names like Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman also on the cast list.