Zoe Saldaña is sick and tired of being the one to broach political questions.
At the Locarno Film Festival, she expressed her disaffection with actors of colour and women having to deal with political questions in interviews.
The actor was attending the festival to receive the Special Honorary Pardo.
Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña is exasperated with fielding political questions and she's calling it out. During a conversation at the Locarno Film Festival, the actress spoke about being frustrated by the barrage of political questions she being a woman of colour is often asked to answer, while the other more privileged people in a room get to dodge.
“One thing that’s incredibly limiting, and frustrating, is when I’m the only person of color or the only woman on stage, and that happens quite a lot for women and for people of color. And I wait for my turn to be asked a question about my craft, and I’m asked the political question,” Saldaña said, adding the following example: “What do you think we need to do to make films more inclusive?”
“I’m sorry, you don’t ask the only person that comes from the marginalized community,” Saldaña emphasised. “You ask the other 80 of them that are part of the gatekeepers, and you ask them if they know the answer because I think that we’re making people of color work double to be in a room.”
Saldaña refrained from citing certain examples of press tours where she’s been flooded with political questions when compared to her co-stars and crew. However, just a jog of recent memory can bring up Emilia Perez offending Mexicans just minutes after she won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2025.
Zoe Saldaña Emilia Perez Oscar Controversy
A journalist in the Oscars press room told Saldaña that the movie had been “really hurtful for us Mexicans,” to which she responded gracefully: “First of all, I’m very, very sorry that many Mexicans felt offended. That was never our intention. We spoke from a place of love. I don’t share your opinion. For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We were making a film about friendship. We were making a film about four women.”
“These women could have been Russian, could have been Dominican, could have been Black from Detroit, could have been from Israel, could have been from Gaza. And these women are still very universal women that are struggling every day, but trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find the most authentic voices,” she stressed. “So I will stand by that, but I’m also always open to sit down with all of my Mexican brothers and sisters, with love and respect, [to have] a great conversation on how ‘Emilia Pérez’ could have been done better. I welcome it.”
She attended the Locarno Film Festival this year and received a Special Honorary Pardo from festival director Giona Nazzaro. She currently appears in the Paramount+ series, Lioness, alongside Nicole Kidman.
