Before she joined two of the biggest movie franchises of all time, Zoe Saldaña had a supporting role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but the then 23-year-old actress didn't have the most pleasant of experiences working on the Disney blockbuster.
Saldaña played Anamaria, one of the many pirates Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) had wronged in the past. She joins forces with Mr. Gibbs and Will Turner in an attempt to gain a measure of revenge, but ultimately has a change of heart and yields command of the Black Peal to Sparrow.
The now prolific actress has hinted at having a rough time while shooting the film in the past, but went into a bit more detail during an interview with BBC Radio 1 (conducted before the strikes).
"I really had a not-so-good experience because of just the poor management at that time, and Jerry Bruckheimer knows this, we spoke about it eventually. I think he read somewhere where I had expressed my discomfort and disappointment, and years later he apologized, which felt really quite honorable actually, I have to say."
Zoe went on to reveal that the whole experience left her feeling that she was "never going to do this again,” as she continued to work out of New York, eventually landing a role opposite Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal.
A key part in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies as Uhura followed, and the rest is history. Saldaña went on to play the female lead in James Cameron's Avatar and its sequel(s), and Gamora in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy.