In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Zoë Saldaña recently spoke about the poor experience she had filming “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” 20 years ago.
Zoë Saldaña’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Experience
Saldaña has referenced her disappointment with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” filming experience before. In the 2003 film, she portrayed Anamaria, a pirate angry with Jack Sparrow for previously stealing her ship. Sparrow promises to give her the Interceptor in return for her help.
“I really had a not-so-good experience,” Saldaña told Radio 1’s Ali Plumb, “because of just the poor management at that time, and Jerry Bruckheimer knows this, we spoke about it eventually. I think he read somewhere where I had expressed my discomfort and disappointment, and years later he apologized, which felt really quite honorable actually, I have to say.”
Saldaña’s Career After ‘Pirates’
Saldaña nearly quit Hollywood, resigning to just working in New York, but she happened to send out an audition tape that Steven Spielberg saw.
“From that experience I was like ‘I’m never going to do this again, I’m just going to stay in New York and work out of New York and that’s it,'” she described. “And then I sent a tape and Steven Spielberg saw it, and cast me from my various notes and tapes that he kept asking me to do from New York and then I met him, and I had also worked with Diego Luna and Tom Hanks and it was just, it was a dream come true.”
Saldaña is referencing her role in Spielberg’s 2004 film “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks. Diego Luna is also featured in the film, before he hit it big in the states thanks to “Star Wars: Rogue One.” Plumb brought up “Andor,” suggesting Saldaña needs a role in the series and she said she’s a big fan of Adria Arjona, who portrays Bix Caleen in the Disney+ series.
Though Saldaña never returned to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, it did open up some big opportunities for her. She has since appeared as Nyota Uhura in the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot, Neytiri in the “Avatar” films, and Gamora in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Avengers” films.
With her roles as Neytiri and Gamora, Saldaña has starred in three out of the top four highest-grossing films of all time. The first “Avatar” made $2,923,706,026, “Avengers: Endgame” made $2,797,501,328, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” made $2,320,250,281. Saldaña also appeared as Gamora in “Avengers: Infinity War,” which made $2,048,359,754 and is the 6th highest-grossing film of all time.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” are the 39th and 42nd highest-grossing films respectively. “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” grossed $654.3 million worldwide.
Watch Zoë Saldaña’s full BBC Radio 1 interview about her biggest films below.
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