The Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy actress has shared new details about her experience working on set of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.
What’s Happening:
- Deadline reports that Steven Spielberg helped Zoe Saldana restore “her faith” in the film industry.
- After working on the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the actress shared she felt mistreated on set by execs and crew working on the films.
- She stated “99% of people in the industry are absolutely wonderful, but if people at the top aren’t leading with kindness… Then eight months later, I worked with Steven Spielberg (on The Terminal), and he restored my faith that big can also be great.”
- The actress didn’t specifically name any executives that made her feel uncomfortable on set.
- Saldana has gone on to work with Disney in many other projects, where she, hopefully, has had much better experiences.
- She shared these stories at the London Film Festival’s Screen Talk session, allowing her to talk about her varied experiences in her illustrious career.
- On Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, she shared “It was a big Disney studio machine, big cast, people doing accents. I barely had my SAG card. I was learning as I was going. I hung out with the camera department, asking the DP: ‘What are you doing?’ That became my school. And I learned the kind of people I wanted to work with.”
- She also gushed about her experiences working on Avatar, stating “Ignorance is bliss. There’s this fearlessness when you’re young. I thought, ‘I’m going to do whatever my director asks me to do.’ And it was James Cameron. Every day, Sam Worthington and I sat watching this scientist. It felt like you were playing in a sandbox, with someone who would put his camera down and explore. It was a wonderful, extremely collaborative experience. I still can’t believe that I won the lottery.”
- Surrounding her role as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy, Saldana said “After Avatar and Star Trek, director James Gunn wanted me to play Gamora in Guardians. I appreciate that today a whole lot more than I did back then. I feared being typecast, and my team were worried for me. But that script, the hero and the anti-hero, I hadn’t seen before and I was curious to work with him.”
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