When it comes to portraying different types of female characters onscreen, Zoe Saldaña said she focuses on weakness rather than strength.
The actress, who stars in Season 2 of Lioness (formerly Special Ops: Lioness), premiering Oct. 27 on Paramount+, told Yahoo Entertainment that whether she’s playing a military operative in the Taylor Sheridan-created drama, a former assassin in Guardians of the Galaxy or even a popular high schooler from the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads, her focus is on what makes her character “vulnerable.”
“I don’t believe that I play strong women,” Saldaña told Yahoo Entertainment. “I believe that I play women, and women from different walks of life with different experiences, different histories, different weaknesses.”
In Lioness, Saldaña stars as CIA station chief Joe McNamara alongside a starry cast that also includes Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman. Her character, who is also married with two young daughters, juggles her dangerous work life with marriage and parenting.
Joe is generally discouraged from showing that weakness on the job, whereas at home, her vulnerabilities play into her role as a woman trying to protect her family from the reality of her career.
“I always approach a character with starting out with her weaknesses. What is it that makes her vulnerable? What is she trying to contain and never reveal?” Saldaña said. “And I do appreciate the fact that some of the characters that I’ve played have an exquisite level of skill.”
Saldaña has come a long way since playing Kit in Crossroads, a movie she told Variety she would be open to rebooting under certain circumstances — namely, a buy-in from Spears.
Saldaña looks back fondly at her character more than two decades later, as well as other early roles, calling them “amazing opportunities” that she would “sink my teeth into and appreciate” and “just try to do my best.”
She’s since logged multiple top-grossing films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar and Star Trek under her weapon-heavy belt. Saldaña said she’s never prepared for “the exposure that these projects … give me.”
Unlike some of those films, which feature robust ensemble casts, Lioness has given Saldaña the opportunity to lead — both as a character and as an actress.
“When that responsibility is bestowed upon me to like, ‘Oh hey, you want to be No. 1 in the call sheet? You want to be sort of like the lead voice that’s guiding this story?’ There’s a great level of pressure that I put on myself,” she said.
“But that encourages me to work harder and I love to work hard,” she added. “I’m not scared of labor.”
Lioness Season 2 premieres Oct. 27 on Paramount+.
