"It Was Definitely An Experience Not Worth Repeating" – Zoe Saldaña Reacts To Her Most Iconic Roles

"What I see [on] screen, I'm very proud of... but I don't ever wanna go back."

Recently, BuzzFeed UK had the chance to sit down with the one and only Zoe Saldaña, and have her react to her most iconic roles.

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From Crossroads to the Guardians of the Galaxy films, here are six surprising things we found out in conversation with Zoe...

1. Apparently, Britney Spears had a lot of reps and staff on the set of Crossroads.

BuzzFeed UK/Summit Entertainment

Crossroads was only Zoe's fourth feature film, in which she played "Southern girl", Kit. "We had a blast, I remember was just so fun", she shared with us. Of co-starring with Britney, Zoe admitted she was "a little afraid": I was like, 'don't get ahead of yourself, do not upstage, don't ruffle any feathers'... [Britney] had like so many reps and so many producers and there was so much privacy around [the film]."

2. Zoe drove to the filming location for Drumline because she was afraid of flying.

BuzzFeed UK/20th Century Fox

Explaining why she avoided planes in order to get to Georgia to shoot the coming-of-age musical dramedy, Zoe said, "9/11 had just occurred [and] I was afraid of flying. So I drove from New York to Atlanta... I had such a wonderful time just being down South with the African-American community [and] understanding what college life was."

3. She felt "lost" when filming Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

BuzzFeed UK/Elliott Marks/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

"A hard production, it was just so big, it was too big of a machine for me", is how Zoe defines her POTC experience. "What I see [on] screen, I'm very proud of... but I don't ever wanna go back... There was just a lot of politics [and] I felt really lost and very small in that big machine, but I'm happy for all of the actors that benefitted from [it]."

4. Zoe wanted to do more of the stunts in the Star Trek films.

BuzzFeed UK/Paramount Pictures

According to Zoe, shooting certain scenes "was challenging because we were in this environment where they [had] these big fans [and] these particles flying all over the place... I wanted to do so much more with the stunts, and J. J. did not want Uhura to get so involved. I remember, I was like 'let me do the kick, let me do this turn' and he was 'no, no, no, no!' ... But it was a lot of fun."

5. Zoe wanted to explore feelings of grief and loss in her role in From Scratch.

BuzzFeed UK/Netflix

"After 2020, we just needed to feel and have an excuse to let out all these emotions", Zoe recounted of her role in From Scratch. She played an American artist who travels to Italy and finds love with a Sicilian chef, who is later diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer.

"The thing about grief is that it's not exclusive, by the time we reach a certain age, [we all] will have experienced [grief and loss] ... This was important for me, personally, because I did experience loss when I was nine, and it's shaped my life every day since then. So I needed to be a part of something that was really important for me, because I wanted to explore it again, but in the shoes of my mother, because I was a child back then."

6. Finally, she hopes that Gamora and Peter Quill cross paths again in the future!

BuzzFeed UK/Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures

Zoe has recently shared that her appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be her last outing as Gamora. Despite this, she still has hopes that her character will get to see her star-crossed lover, Peter Quill (played by Chris Pratt), again.

"I thought that she was going to find her way back into being a Guardian, but that wasn't what James Gunn wanted in the end. I accepted it, and I think that the end is beautiful. My hope is that the Guardians one day will need the help of the Ravagers, and his path will cross with Gamora, and she at least be curious to explore a journey with him. Because they were really great together!"

Did any of these surprise you? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to check out the whole video on YouTube for more (including how she feels about the Avatar movies).