Zoe Saldaña Said a Producer Once Told Her ‘I Hired You to Look Good in Your Underwear Holding a Gun’
Actor Zoe Saldaña is an accomplished star with several blockbuster roles under her belt. Still, as a woman in Hollywood, she’s run into her fair share of sexism. Saldaña once found her talent being placed aside for her looks as a producer once told her, “I hired you to look good in your underwear holding a gun.”
Zoe Saldaña on the sexism she faced filming one certain movie
Zoe Saldaña is one of the few stars who’ve been in billion-dollar box office projects. Her 2009 turn as Uhura in Star Trek and her role in James Cameron’s Avatar helped the actor make a name for herself as a bankable star, which is why when she was told her input in one project wasn’t needed, she was shocked.
Saldaña, who didn’t name any names, said that when she was hired for the project, she was told the execs loved her work and wanted to work with her. As a matter of fact, the star was encouraged to provide any input and share her opinions throughout the filming process, but that bubble burst quickly.
“A producer said, ‘I hired you to look good in your underwear holding a gun,” the Columbiana star told Allure (via E! News). The star thought she was doing what she was hired and asked to do by giving her opinions but said the producer was so annoyed with her that he branded her as difficult.
“This producer was so bothered by the fact that he had to disrupt his vacation to call me and tell me to stop being a difficult b****. I thought, ‘Wow. It’s real. It really happens.'” The actor told the Philadelphia Daily News in 2015 that she wished she’d recorded the conversation to “play it for every girl in elementary school and tell them never to let anybody treat them that way.”
Based on the timeline and scene described by Saldaña, it’s possible the movie in question was 2010’s The Losers.
Zoe Saldaña faced discrimination on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ set
Pirates of the Caribbean is also one of Zoe Saldaña’s groundbreaking movies, giving her notoriety. However, as her professional life thrived thanks to the Disney blockbuster, her life behind the scenes was less than perfect. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, Saldaña said, “Those weren’t the right people for me.”
The actor clarified that she wasn’t talking about the POTC cast as they were lovely but was referring to “the political stuff that went on behind closed doors,” which almost made her quit the movie. Saldaña claimed she was treated less than favorably on the set, calling it “very elitist.” “People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet, and they think I’m not important,” she said.
Saldaña has been in some of the highest-grossing films of all-time
Zoe Saldaña started acting as a member of the theater group Faces. She appeared in an episode of Law & Order in 1999 and did her first film a year later. She starred in various projects, including Crossroads, Drumline, POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and The Terminal.
It wasn’t until 2009 that Saldaña would get her breakthrough, appearing in Star Trek. The movie was a success and pivoted her career. Her second high-profile project was Avatar which grossed $2.7 billion at the box office.
Saldaña went on to appear in The Losers, Columbiana, Takers, and Death at A Funeral before joining the Marvel franchise with The Guardians of the Galaxy. Saldaña’s roles in Avatar, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame make her the only actor to appear in three of the five highest-grossing films of all time.
