Zoe Saldaña Opens Up About Her Tough Childhood After The Death Of Her Father
Zoe Saldaña is taking a trip down memory lane. As the actress delved into her past, she rehashed some personal grief.
In an exclusive interview with the emmy magazine, Zoe shared how the passing of her father at a very early stage in her life affected her. It was just a normal day in 1987 when her grandmother sat the family down to tell them the heart wrenching news. Her father, Aridio Saldaña had died in a car accident.
“I remember her drinking coffee and saying, ‘We’re going to get through this,'” she said. “‘Papa wants us to get through this. But please understand this part of life: death came knocking and took one of us.’”
Up until then she was just a normal child, living in Queens with her siblings, parents and grandmother. Her parents ran a small clothing store and her grandmother worked as a seamstress.
A nostalgic Zoey further talked about her father playing instruments in the house. He also loved to dance with his wife. Soon after his death, Zoey and her sisters had to relocate to the Dominican Republic, to live with their grandparents.
This transition wasn’t easy for 9 year old Zoe. “There’s no winter, no Santa Claus, no grapes or apples — it’s mango and guavas,” she said. “Everything was always new and changing, changing, changing. These sound like small things, but they add up in a day. It was hard.”
Adjusting to the Caribbean after living in New York can be tough on a child. She felt lost at times. “I’ve always felt like an alien in my own skin,” the actress says. “It’s like
I’m on the outside looking in, and I really started to feel it after we lost our dad.” But her time in the Dominican Republic was instrumental in shaping her worldview.
She took up ballet and before you know it — she was 16 and back in the USA, joining a theater troupe for teenagers in Brooklyn. This is where she discovered her love for acting. Ever since she’s been unstoppable, starring in big blockbusters like Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Her newest project is a Netflix series called “From Scratch.” It is an adaptation of Tembi Locke’s memoir. The memoir is about Tembi having to grapple with her husband’s untimely death. The full title is From Scratch: A Memoir Of Love, Sicily, And Finding Home.
The story of Tembi struck a chord with Zoe as she could relate to the grief Tembi felt after losing a family member. “It was all of those things that Tembi wrote about, but [viewed] through a childlike lens.”
“Losing our hero, the strongest person in the room, who walked on water, and then seeing how our gorgeous, strong mom just fell apart and couldn’t get out of bed to take us to school.”
Zoe Saldaña and Reese Witherspoon are both executive producers on “From Scratch” and are working together to adapt the memoir for the screen.
