Zoe Saldaña guesses lines from 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' 'The Losers', working with Britney Spears in 'Crossroads' and talks the beauty of her upcoming film 'Emilia Pérez.'
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00:00I don't remember things that I've done. Who said this?
00:03But you stole his boat.
00:12Who said this? When I was little, I collected human ears. Is it Gamora?
00:16When I was little, I collected human ears. The Losers?
00:23When I was little, I collected human ears.
00:26When I was little, I collected human ears.
00:29I think I had more fun bonding with the cast and with Puerto Rico.
00:35It was a wonderful experience, and it was a fun movie. It's young and it's fresh,
00:39and it was just action-driven. It was fun.
00:41And the director, he was really talented and he was really great.
00:46Okay, here we go. I've always hated that chair.
00:50Oh my God, I'm getting old. I don't remember things that I've done.
00:55Um, this was Avengers?
01:00Oh my God, yes, yes. She's talking about her dad.
01:04Yeah, I've always hated that chair. I always hated that chair.
01:08I wish I can go back and reshoot what Gamora was going through in the Avengers movies.
01:15I don't think I was quite understanding what the Russo brothers were.
01:19Excellent filmmakers. And the opportunity that they gave me was of a lifetime
01:23to highlight Gamora in such a way in their films is something that I will forever be grateful.
01:29I wish I can go back and redo it so that I can push a little harder because
01:33it was such a great opportunity to play sort of like a daughter having issues with a dad,
01:38and whether or not she's having this opportunity to reconciliate or to heal or to repair,
01:44or simply just walk away from this person.
01:48That would have been a great opportunity had I, you know, been a little more aware of it back then.
01:53Okay. I'm impressed. For a moment there,
01:56I thought you were just some dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals.
02:01Uh, dumb hick? When have I ever called somebody a dumb hick?
02:09Star Trek. Oh my God. Was I calling Captain Kirk that?
02:17That makes sense. That makes sense. I was calling Chris Pine that. I mean, Captain Kirk.
02:24I'm impressed. For a moment there,
02:26I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals.
02:29Years before, I did a film called The Terminal, and I played like an immigration officer at an
02:35airport who was a Trekkie. I did my research then years before booking Star Trek, and I was amazed
02:43by the passion that, you know, Trekkies have, Trekkors have for Star Trek. I learned a lot
02:49from it. So when I booked Star Trek with J.J. Abrams, I basically just took off from where I
02:55had left. Talk about covering all my bases. Your chair's pressure wired. You move a single inch,
03:00and that'll be the last move you ever make. Colombiana. Talk about covering all my bases.
03:05Your chair's pressure wired. You move a single inch, and that'll be the last move you ever make.
03:10Throughout the time that I'm training and prepping and shooting a project,
03:14it's like a free education. I love, I love to educate myself. I love learning. I'm such a
03:18curious person. With Colombiana, there was a lot of training, a lot of fight training,
03:22a lot of gun training. And it was a very specific form of fighting. And I trained in France with an
03:28exquisite stunt coordinator there. I feel like I shot myself in the foot by only highlighting
03:34the genre of action. I want to do it all. I'm an avid reader. Like when I'm not working or making
03:40art or with my family, I'm reading a lot. And I read all kinds of genres. I would love to be able
03:46to direct something that I'm deeply passionate about. I am not some starry-eyed waif here to
03:53succumb to your pelvic sorcery. That's Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. And I am not some
03:58starry-eyed waif here to succumb to your pelvic sorcery. James Gunn offered me the part. I think
04:06he had seen my work in previous projects like Avatar. And he really felt like, okay, I think
04:11that I know who I want for the role of Gamora. I wish I can go back in time and just try so many
04:17more things for her. She was a really fun character to play, but also like a really deep character
04:23because I know it's a Marvel movie and we don't like to use words like deep and Marvel in the
04:28same sentence. But I like to, and I take great pride in knowing that I was a part of great films
04:34that cater to a younger audience, that inspires a younger audience. What he was doing was something
04:38really special because he was really stepping outside of the traditional molds of what superheroes
04:43were supposed to be. And we were supposed to be these rejects that came with childhood traumas,
04:49and disabilities, and mental issues. And he gave these characters space to be loved, to learn
04:58about self-love, to love each other, to find a family within their friendship. It was actually
05:04a really important film now that I look back at it. Oh, you stole my boat. Oh my God.
05:12One of my children saw Pirates and I wish I didn't show you that video where he's just like,
05:17it's like three years ago. He's like, but you stole his boat. He just didn't understand
05:21what was the kind of dynamic, like why was Ana Maria so hostile? You stole my boat.
05:29The one thing I do remember is meeting exquisite human beings and feeling always taken care of
05:36by absolute professional gentlemen. I was really young when I did that movie
05:41and just having fun shooting on location with the cast. It was a lot of fun.
05:48Oh, you cannot ask this. The children, everything they've ever known, the forest, this is our home.
05:54And they teary in the way of water. You cannot ask this. The children,
05:58everything they've ever known, the forest, this is our home.
06:02There was just something really powerful about her journey in the second installment
06:08where I just unconsciously channeled just so many women immigrants leaving something behind and
06:14starting new in a new world with your family and not having the resources or the connection to your
06:21spirituality or to your place or to your home or to your people and how you still have to find it
06:27in you every day to wake up and raise a family with values and with your culture. And so for
06:32some reason that just kept always bleeding into like my psyche as I was putting Neytiri together
06:39for this second installment. It was quite painful. I remember for Sam and I, we were
06:43just anticipating the fate that as Neytiri and Jake, like that their son was going to have,
06:48and we were just sick. We were physically sick just like because we knew that that shoot day
06:56was going to come and we just didn't want it to come because, you know, we were having our children
06:59and they were very small and channeling something so unimaginable, so horrific. It's just unbelievable,
07:06you know. But we did it with Jim by our side and it was quite powerful.
07:14You might do well to remember that the pawn and the king end up in the same box at the end of the
07:18game. What's this? You might do well to remember that the pawn and the king end up in the same box
07:23at the end. Is this an animation? It's still like Avengers or Marvel or no Star Trek. Star Trek?
07:37Is this Live by Night? Oh my god! You might do well to remember is that the pawn and the king
07:43end up in the same box at the end of the game. I think I remember him more as a director. I think
07:48he's incredibly talented and a true director because he's a really talented writer. Being
07:53directed by him just felt safe and exciting. I mean, my part was so small. I just remember that
08:01much of kind of going, wow, he's a really talented director. There's one thing that I learned by
08:07from watching him, and I'm paying it forward for myself, to surround yourself with people
08:12that are better than you. The cinematographer was like award-winning, the set designer and the
08:16costumers and everybody around. They were just people that were prolific. I remembered that. I'm
08:23like, oh yeah, like you want to be the smartest person in the room? Surround yourself with smarter
08:27people. And what? You think you're going to become like this big, fat, pregnant star? Oh my god,
08:35Crossroads. Oh geez, Louise. I remember that. And what? You think you're going to become like this
08:42big, fat, pregnant star? It was so fun, but it was also like the first time that I was like around
08:47like a big pop star. She was just so sought after, and yet she was so down-to-earth and kind and
08:55approachable. And I loved that the whole sort of like immediate production was all women.
09:01Producers, the filmmaker, cast and director, the cast, being around like an all-woman kind of world
09:08gave me just like a nice little kick. I was like, oh this is, I like, I want to be like this all the
09:14time. Sequels are so popular that we've been living the last 20 years in the world of sequels,
09:20and usually you thought that sequels were only for action movies or superhero movies, and now
09:26sequels can live in all kinds of genres. Why not, you know? But I feel like it would only work if
09:31Britney comes back and plays her character again, and Taron Manning does as well, and Anson Mound,
09:38and that we write realistic sort of scenarios for them. That would be beautiful.
09:44Ah, you have a strong heart, no fear, but stupid, ignorant like a child. Yes, that's Nate
09:49Thierry from Avatar. But stupid, ignorant like a child. It's completely ahead of its time. It's almost
09:57prophetic. The things that he highlighted when he did Terminator 40 years ago are things that we are
10:03experiencing now. Just that cloud of doubt that we have around AI are just themes that James Cameron
10:09was tampering with completely ahead of his time. And Avatar is no different. He's able to gather
10:15all of his passions and weave a story that ends up being really compelling, and that's what makes
10:22James Cameron films just so special. They're unlike anything you've seen before, so they end
10:27up really being an experience rather than just a film that you watch. It's a story that stays with
10:33you for a very long time, and sometimes even compels you to do things from it, you know?
10:39Rita and Emilia Perez. He desires to remain anonymous.
10:45If you're not willing to accept, I don't think it's worth talking. Expect to feel. Go to the
10:53theater and allow your heart to be your brain. Everything about this film from beginning to end
11:00will be completely unexpected, non-traditional, and yet so familiar, and beautiful, and heartfelt,
11:08and deep, and joyous, and important. It was a very special project, and I'm very
11:14proud to have been a part of it. So proud.