EMILIA PEREZ Star Zoe Saldaña on Navigating the Challenges of ADHD and More for HARPER’S BAZAAR Magazine

Posted on January 22, 2025

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Zoe Saldaña covers the Harper’s BAZAAR February 2025 issue and sits down with Harper’s BAZAAR Features Director Kaitlyn Greenidge to discuss how her childhood shaped her resilience, navigating the challenges of ADHD and dyslexia, and how these experiences deeply influenced her artistry.  Reflecting on her upbringing, Saldaña opens up about losing her father at a young age, moving to the Dominican Republic, and finding solace in art: “I learned in a very innocent, unconscious way when I was very young that I need to live in art, because I find peace,” she says.

She also discusses her film EMILIA PEREZ, for which she recently won her first Golden Globe for Best Supporting Female Actor. In the film, she stars alongside Karla Sofía Gascón, with the story exploring a transformative relationship between their characters. Gascón shares that the strong chemistry she and Saldaña developed while filming in Paris was key to making the story feel authentic. “We spent evenings walking the streets of Paris, talking, laughing, and getting to know each other… All of that helped us to connect with our characters and make our work more believable and authentic,” Gascón explains.          

Saldaña also shares her thoughts on the importance that female mentorship has had on her life and career, and how she initially doubted her ability to take on the demanding role in Lioness before ultimately rising to the challenge: “I didn’t feel that I was cut out for it. I was convinced that I was going to fail.”

 

 

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On the profound impact of losing her father in a car accident when she was just nine years old: She grew up in New York City in the ’80s, the middle of three sisters. Saldaña was nine when their father died in a car accident. The loss would have a rippling effect over the rest of her life. “When my father passed away, we all went straight into survival mode,” she says. “We dropped all those little pleasures of life that you do in a day that compel you to calm down. I remember my mom used to wear red lipstick, and she used to walk around in little tight shorts and tight jeans, and she always looked pretty and was always flirting with my dad, and the moment he passed away, she wouldn’t get out of bed for more than a couple of years.”

On moving to the Dominican Republic after her father’s passing and the difficult experience of facing bullying from other kids: After Saldaña’s father’s death, her mother sent her and her sisters to live with family in the Dominican Republic while she stayed in the U.S., working two, sometimes three jobs to support them. The change was profound. “You can’t speak English; you have to speak only Spanish. You can’t code-switch,” she remembers. “And then you get bullied because kids don’t understand you. And we weren’t little victims. We pushed back, but then they pushed harder, because they all understood each other.”

On how growing up with ADHD and dyslexia, left her feeling sad and isolated, as she struggled to fit in: Saldaña’s public persona may be one of cool competence and professionalism, but that’s not how she sees herself. “I was always off,” Saldaña says. “When you have a child that has ADHD and is dyslexic and has a lot of energy and doesn’t sit still and is unable to listen, you think that it’s on purpose. I just remember asking myself, ‘Why don’t I fit in? Why do I do this?’ It would make me really sad, and it would make me feel really isolated.”

On how she finds peace in creating art: “I learned in a very innocent, unconscious way when I was very young that I need to live in art, because I find peace,” Saldaña explains. “I can rest when I’m creating.”

On the powerful impact that women mentors have had in her life: She traces her life through the women who mentored her. “My life has always been saved, over and over again, by people who have taken me in, by guiding me, raising me, and educating me,” she says.

On how at first, she didn’t believe she was cut out for her role in Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness, initially passing on the opportunity, and eventually returning to it a year later: Saldaña’s current role on Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness is another exploration of female mentorship—though it focuses on the dark side. Saldaña plays the spymaster of a ring of covert female CIA counterterrorism operatives. Her character, Joe, is Saldaña’s polar opposite—regimented, where Saldaña is a free spirit—which is why she turned down the role at first. When the role was initially offered to her, she was coming to terms with her lifelong “restlessness,” as she terms it, and beginning to understand how her ADHD and dyslexia have informed her life. “I didn’t feel that I was cut out for it. I was convinced that I was going to fail.” After turning down the offer, she thought about the role for a whole year before calling Sheridan back. “He responded immediately, and he was like, ‘We’re f**king waiting on you.’ ”

 

[Photo Credit: Larissa Hofmann for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine]

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