Zoe Saldana put self-doubt aside to star in ‘Special Ops: Lioness’

Zoe Saldaña has starred in three successful film franchises: ‘Avatar’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Star Trek’ and yet when Taylor Sheridan approached her to lead his new TV series, ‘Special Ops: Lioness’, she said no.

“I have ADD and I’m dyslexic, so learning a lot of dialogue was always very daunting. I never thought that I’d ever get to be a part of projects where dialogue and writing are so important to the whole story. I tend to run away from that. I have a hard time focusing, which is why the action genre was always appealing to me,” said Saldaña in an interview before the start of the actors’ strike.

She says Sheridan called her and was very complimentary, adding that he was writing a character with her in mind. As exciting as the project seemed, she passed: “I read the pilot. I loved it so much that I freaked out and I walked away from it.”

A year later, she was in Italy filming the limited series ‘From Scratch’ and found herself once again thinking about that Sheridan offer, which she brought to her husband.

“I guess he was just sick of me always mentioning the show and not doing anything about it. He was like, ‘Just call him. Just text him’. And the thing about Taylor is that if he’s busy and it’s not something that he considers important, he won’t call you back for weeks. If it’s really something that he wants to hear, he calls back within seconds, so that’s exactly what he did. He said, ‘I’m waiting on you. The script is still here. We haven’t done anything about it. Please say yes’. And I did,” Saldaña recounted.

After that initial trepidation to take the role, Saldaña says her admiration of Sheridan’s work has only grown. He wrote each of the show’s eight episodes.

“I have a great deal of respect for somebody who really believes in what they do. Now that I know him a little more, he’s very confident about his writing. That may throw people off, but I tend to really lean in and revere people who know who they are. If your strength is this, then own and protect it. If you don’t want to compromise, it’s okay as long as we still keep tuning into your stories. It’s working.”