Zoe Saldana, our favorite space warrior-slash-pirate, just got real about her “seriously disastrous” time working on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. And spoiler alert: it sounds less like swashbuckling fun and more like an episode of The Office, but with pirates and swords.
During a lively chat at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival (October 12), Zoe took the stage to reflect on the wild early years of her Hollywood adventure. Somewhere between dancing in ballet slippers and chasing aliens, she found herself thrown onto a pirate ship, clueless but determined—and, according to her, it was a bit of a mess.
Zoe hit the big screen with 2000’s Center Stage, pirouetting her way into our hearts, and later shared the screen with Britney Spears in Crossroads. But THEN, she made a hard left turn into the high seas of 2003’s Pirates as Anamaria, the pirate who was NOT here for Captain Jack Sparrow’s nonsense after he swiped her ship.
So, what was it like working on such a blockbuster? A dream? LOL, no. More like a nightmare dressed as a Disney fantasy.
> “It was this enormous Disney machine with everyone doing accents. I barely had my SAG card!” Zoe laughed. “I was just trying to figure out where the heck the craft services were and why everyone sounded like Captain Crunch.”
Instead of glitz and glamour, Zoe found herself ditching pirate vibes for film school-on-the-go, hanging out with the camera crew like “Teach me your ways, wise ones!” She even bugged the director of photography, whispering, “What does this button do?” (Spoiler: It did not launch the cannons.)
But not all treasure is gold, my friends. Zoe discovered that a big-budget film without a good vibe can sink faster than Jack Sparrow after a few too many rums.
> “The cast and crew were great. Like, 99% of them were awesome!” she said. “But if the guys running the show aren’t leading with kindness and empathy? Oof. That ship gets rocky fast—and boy, did I tip overboard.”
And by “tip overboard,” she means the whole thing was Titanic-level bad—minus the iceberg. Zoe kept her cool but learned pretty quickly that the magic of Disney was, well… buried under a whole lot of stress and bad management.
But don’t worry—every Hollywood disaster has a redemption arc. Enter: Steven Spielberg, aka Zoe’s cinematic fairy godfather. Just months after the Pirates debacle, she landed a role in The Terminal (2004), alongside Tom Hanks. This time, there were no shipwrecks or weird pirate hats—just a heartwarming airport story and one very kind Spielberg restoring Zoe’s faith in big productions.
> “Working with Steven was like finding the treasure at the end of the rainbow.” Zoe grinned. “He showed me that ‘big’ can be great when everyone brings kindness along for the ride.”
In The Terminal, Zoe swapped pirate ships for passports, playing Dolores Torres, a customs officer who probably had zero patience for your expired visa excuses.
And thus, Zoe Saldana’s early career adventure came full circle: from sea battles and studio chaos to smooth airport operations and Steven Spielberg’s magical touch. Moral of the story? Not all treasure is gold, but a great director can be worth more than a shipful of doubloons.
