Zoe Saldaña is one of the highest-grossing film actresses of all time, largely due to her work in major franchises such as Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avatar. However, these are substantial time commitments, keeping her from appearing in a wider variety of roles. While talking with Women’s Wear Daily, Saldaña admitted that she felt ‘stuck’ doing these roles for the last decade:

Her recent roles include Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek reboot franchise, which consists of three films; Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spans four films and an upcoming fifth; and Neytiri in the Avatar franchise, 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:

“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.”

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“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.”

Saldaña Reflects on From Scratch: ‘I’m So Happy I Did It’

     Netflix

Despite her busy filming schedule, Zoe Saldaña found time to branch out and challenge herself. One of her more nuanced projects is the Netflix limited series From 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:

Zoe Saldaña’s upcoming movies include Avatar: The Way of Water, which releases on Dec. 16, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with a premiere set for May 5th, 2023. The Netflix series From Scratch also began streaming on Oct. 21.

“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.”