Star Trek reboot, Saldana’s earlier experience with the then-fledgling Pirates franchise left a sour taste in her mouth and almost led her to quit Hollywood filmmaking altogether.
In The Curse of the Black Pearl, Saldana plays Anamaria: a no-nonsense pirate from Jack Sparrow’s past. She hunts him down for stealing her boat, and — after dealing out a few deserved slaps — ends up ing his crew. By the end of the film, having crossed blades with undead pirates, Anamaria and Jack (Johnny Depp) appear to be on better ; skeleton battles clearly at the heart of any good relationship.
Unfortunately, in Saldana’s experience, this on-screen camaraderie wasn’t reflected in the film’s production — though she insists that the cast were not to blame. Talking with THR in 2014, Saldana said, “Those weren't the right people for me. I'm not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I'm talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors. It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus PAs. It was very elitist.” She then went on to discuss the film’s impact on her career, saying: “I almost quit the business. I was 23 years old, and I was like, ‘F— this!’ I am never putting myself in this situation again. People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet and they think I'm not important. ‘F— you’.”
These statements expanded on previous comments from a 2011 interview with felt by star Johnny Depp, who revealed in a 2018 interview with GQ that, "The trouble with working with these big studios is they can get uncomfortable about certain creative decisions you make. That happened with Pirates." Depp went on to clarify: "Disney hated me. [They were] thinking of every way they could to get rid of me, to fire me."
Clearly, Disney's approach left a lot to be desired, and — while Depp signed on for Guardians of the Galaxy — a role she has returned to readily across several films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That the MCU and Avatar are both Disney-owned brands doesn't appear to phase Saldana, suggesting that her negative experience working on The Curse of the Black Pearl was specific to the company at the time (under then-CEO Michael Eisner), and not reflective of Disney's current workplace culture. While the Pirates franchise continued, Saldana remained absent — though her character, Anamaria, did go on to appear in various spin-off materials, including a short-lived comic book series and a Lego-themed video game.
After a string of critical failures, and diminishing box-office returns of late, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is in deep water, and reports abound that Disney are attempting to revive the property with fresh blood. Only time will tell whether Zoe Saldana’s Anamaria will regain her sea-legs and re- the franchise, but the actress’s ongoing relationship with Disney via Marvel, along with reports that the new Pirates film will be female-driven, certainly lend credence to such a possibility.
