Zoe Saldana says working with Steven Spielberg on 'The Terminal' 'restored my faith' after bad 'Pirates of the Caribbean' experience in big Hollywood production

Zoe Saldana has worked with several famous Hollywood directors over the years, including James Cameron and JJ Abrams, but has “restored her faith” in one industry in particular: Steven Spielberg.

Saldana starred alongside Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Spielberg's 2004 comedy-drama “The Terminal,” which came right after her first big-budget role in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Saldana 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 made her “tip overboard.”

“I knew with that experience the kind of people I wanted to work with,” Saldana said of “Pirates.” “Crew and cast, they are super awesome 99% of the time. But if the studio and the producer and the director, they don't lead with kindness and awareness and consideration, a big production can become a really bad experience and you can tip overboard. And I kind of did.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the 2022 experience, Saldana said: “I didn't really come away with a good experience from it. I felt like I got lost in the trenches of it a lot, and I don't think that was right.” Years later, producer Jerry Bruckheimer personally apologized to her.

Luckily, he had “The Terminal” by his side. “I worked with Steven Spielberg eight months later, and he restored my faith that big can be great,” Saldana said.

He remembered feeling “so good and so safe” on set and noted how Spielberg played the music over loudspeakers between scenes to ensure everyone was “synchronized and on the same page”. That's how he discovered the work of Nino Rota, an Italian composer best known for scoring many of Federico Fellini's most famous films. When he and Spielberg discussed Rota's work and its importance in filmmaking, the director told him something he never forgot: “To know where you are, you have to know where you came from.”

The “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” star is currently making the press rounds for her new film “Emilia Perez.” Directed by Jacques Audiard, the musical crime comedy tells the story of Emilia (Carla Sofia Gascon), a drug cartel leader who enlists Rita (Saldana) to help her fake her death and undergo gender-affirming surgery. Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Marc Ivanir and Edgar Ramirez also star in the film, which was selected by France to submit for the International Feature Oscar. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and Saldana, Gascon, Gómez and Paz won Best Actress.

During the interview with Dr diversity At Cannes, Saldana discussed the nerves she felt surrounding the film's musical component, which features Camille's original song and several dance numbers.

“I went through all my stages of paranoia — I was delirious and then I was like, 'I can't do this' and then I was like, 'I think I'm breaking something,'” she said.

Saldana added that although it's an “unconventional story,” it's “important to have a story like this. So my only hope is that it's received with an open heart and mind.”

“Emilia Perez” will be released on Netflix on November 13