Zoe Saldaña wishes she ‘knew the power of saying no’ in early career

Zoe Saldaña wishes she knew “the power of saying no” when she first started out in Hollywood.

The Avatar star revealed in ELLE’s Women in Hollywood edition that she felt like she had to say yes to every acting opportunity that came her way, even if the project didn’t really speak to her.

When asked what she wished she knew before getting into the movie business, Saldaña replied, “I wish I knew the power of saying no. You feel like you’re running out of time, especially if you’re a woman. It was do it all, ‘Do as much as possible, say yes as much as you can,’ even when those moments were betraying my true feelings about how I felt about meeting someone or jumping into something really quickly.”

Now, the Guardians of the Galaxy star shares that advice with up-and-coming stars so they feel empowered to turn projects down.

“One thing I try to tell a lot of younger women is (along the line of what) something that I heard Jane Fonda say in an interview: You can always say no,” she stated.

Throughout her career, Saldaña has been offered many opportunities too good to pass up, from working Steven Spielberg on The Terminal to James Cameron on Avatar, J.J. Abrams on Star Trek and James Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy.

She noted that those projects felt like “a shot of oxygen into (her) lungs”.

“Those are those moments where through that struggle that I have with loving myself, I’m repurposed,” she praised. “I’m compelled to see myself as others are seeing me, and the sacrifices that I’m putting in every day are being rewarded. It’s a shot of oxygen into my lungs, and it reshapes me and raises me; it reconnects me to my higher self.”

The 46-year-old can currently be seen in the crime musical Emilia Pérez, which is now streaming on Netflix.