"Zoe Saldaña"

Escape [room] with us and our Triple-A, Zoe Saldaña. The Universal Language, Scientists, Animals & Children, The Volume, and gelato every day. To your point, welcome in… it’s an all-new SmartLess.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Sean Hayes?

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• 0:44Sean Hayes?

  in select regions for 18-plus users. Check responses for accuracy. Supervise closely; interrupt when needed.

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• 1:19Speaker 02

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• 1:21Speaker 03

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• 1:28Speaker 02

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• 1:29Speaker 03

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• 1:36Speaker 02

  And my coffee-obsessed bestie?

• 1:37Speaker 03

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• 1:41Speaker 02

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• 1:43Speaker 03

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• 1:46Speaker 01

  Shop gifts they'll love at Walmart.

• 1:51Speaker 01

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• 2:25Jason Bateman?

  So hello, here this is a cold open to our upcoming episode of Smartless.

• 2:32Will Arnett?

  The cold open is, Jason, the cold open is...

• 2:34Jason Bateman?

  This is where we do a little bit of banter.

• 2:35Will Arnett?

  Have we prepared anything?

• 2:37Jason Bateman?

  We've prepared nothing. Can we just get a suggestion from the audience? What is it?

• 2:40Will Arnett?

  That'd be great.

• 2:41Jason Bateman?

  Bananas! Okay, so bananas is the prompt.

• 2:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah, it makes me think of, what it makes me think of...

• 2:50Jason Bateman?

  Is breakfast?

• 2:52Sean Hayes?

  Breakfast. Welcome to Smartless.

• 2:54Jason Bateman?

  Terrible, terrible cold open.

• 3:14Jason Bateman?

  Hey Sean?

• 3:15Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:16Jason Bateman?

  You have anything you'd like to say to the listening world?

• 3:18Sean Hayes?

  I did go recently with me and Scotty and two other friends to an escape room. And it was, um, have you ever been?

• 3:25Jason Bateman?

  Was it inside your house?

• 3:26Will Arnett?

  Well, you know, you know, you know why I haven't been? Because you know who went to an escape room this weekend? Nash for his seventh birthday.

• 3:33Sean Hayes?

  Couldn't get in, there were too many seventh graders in there.

• 3:37Will Arnett?

  You know what, you know what else Nash is into? Lightsabers.

• 3:40Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 3:41Will Arnett?

  Star Wars.

• 3:42Sean Hayes?

  But let me tell you, but I like the problem solving of escape rooms.

• 3:45Will Arnett?

  Do you have a mirror close by? I need you to look in the mirror right now. I need you to fucking have a conversation with yourself right now. And say, fuck it dude, I blew it.

• 3:55Sean Hayes?

  Have you ever done it?

• 3:56Will Arnett?

  You blew it!

• 3:57Jason Bateman?

  Have you ever done it? Uh, I don't think I have.

• 4:00Will Arnett?

  Yes.

• 4:01Jason Bateman?

  I know my.

• 4:01Will Arnett?

  After all that, yes.

• 4:03Jason Bateman?

  Well, with your kids, though, right?

• 4:05Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I did it with the kids, but I will say it's really fun and it's hard.

• 4:09Jason Bateman?

  Collect and just hang out.

• 4:11Will Arnett?

  Here's part of the other thing that people don't understand when we.

• 4:13Jason Bateman?

  Cause I haven't done one in years and it was great.

• 4:16Will Arnett?

  Uh, is that, well, you were in that real, right? Didn't you, weren't you in some guy? He built a thing in his basement and he tried to put you in there. You were in there for like 18 months or some shit.

• 4:25Jason Bateman?

  That was a gag ball.

• 4:27Will Arnett?

  You were like in the.

• 4:28Jason Bateman?

  That was consensual.

• 4:29Will Arnett?

  Hey, where could I get all of them?

• 4:32Will Arnett?

  Wasn't there something that he wanted you to put lotion in the basket or something? What happened with that?

• 4:37Jason Bateman?

  Yes, I'm telling you it was consensual.

• 4:39Will Arnett?

  I forget the detail. Remember you telling me once.

• 4:42Jason Bateman?

  Anyway, that's an escape.

• 4:44Will Arnett?

  But I will say that we like to give each other shit. Cause I was thinking about, I give you shit. I rip on it like, no, it's for fucking kids, blah, blah, blah. And of course I've done it myself. And so then people sometimes will go like, you guys are just too mean or whatever. I'm like, yeah, we're fucking around, man. We're just having a laugh.

• 4:59Jason Bateman?

  You know what I really enjoyed with the kids is laser tag. Have you guys done those ones?

• 5:03Will Arnett?

  I have.

• 5:03Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 5:04Will Arnett?

  I won with a bunch of 12 year olds. I won.

• 5:07Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, no, no, here comes Sean again with another adult playdate.

• 5:10Sean Hayes?

  I did it with Bella Bizzaria for her birthday.

• 5:12Jason Bateman?

  You did it with Bella? Netflix's greatest Bella Bizzaria.

• 5:16Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, we did it for her birthday one year.

• 5:17Jason Bateman?

  Come on. That was my call.

• 5:20Sean Hayes?

  Um, there was a long time.

• 5:21Will Arnett?

  Remember when it was really fun? Remember like everybody was like super hipstery and it was like, hey, we're gonna go do kickball, adult kickball league. Then we're gonna go do laser tag and then we all drive like old BMX bikes.

• 5:31Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 5:32Will Arnett?

  I've got an ironic bicycle. Do you have an ironic bicycle? Like, you know what I mean?

• 5:36Sean Hayes?

  Wait, did you do paintball? I did my oldest brother Dennis for his, uh, for his wedding. I was the best man.

• 5:42Jason Bateman?

  Oh, yeah. This is decades ago. I had to do, I did paintball training for a movie once.

• 5:46Will Arnett?

  Paintball.

• 5:47Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, when we did Kingdom, we, we had to go out and do paintball fights. And it was really, really scary getting hunted by, by, by someone.

• 5:55Will Arnett?

  I was talking to the kids, went paintballing last week. I was just talking to them on the way to school today about paintball.

• 5:59Jason Bateman?

  It's fun, right?

• 6:00Will Arnett?

  I've never done it. I've always wanted to do it.

• 6:02Jason Bateman?

  Oh, it's really painful.

• 6:04Will Arnett?

  I killed somebody with a real gun.

• 6:05Jason Bateman?

  Oh, well, welcome to Smartless.

• 6:07Will Arnett?

  Let's get to the guest. Let's get to the guest.

• 6:10Sean Hayes?

  I do want to get to the guest. Let's get to the guest.

• 6:12Will Arnett?

  I want to get to the guest too, but hang on, I just want to say, uh, what, here's the thing. I was just gonna go on a couple of things about. Do we have a segment yet called just stuff I hate, or should we?

• 6:23Sean Hayes?

  We absolutely should.

• 6:24Jason Bateman?

  Pretty kind of unofficially covered every week with you, but.

• 6:27Will Arnett?

  Yeah, thank you, thank you.

• 6:29Sean Hayes?

  In the body of the show.

• 6:31Will Arnett?

  It's a new expression that we're, that I'm adding to, to, uh, storyteller. Which is everywhere you go now, and I think it started in the golf world, I think, but it's everywhere. Which is, and it drives me fucking crazy. Welcome in.

• 6:45Jason Bateman?

  Oh, this is this.

• 6:46Will Arnett?

  Welcome in.

• 6:46Jason Bateman?

  Welcome in. Phrases that we'd like to never hear again.

• 6:49Will Arnett?

  Have you heard people say, welcome in?

• 6:51Jason Bateman?

  I haven't had that one.

• 6:52Will Arnett?

  They go, welcome in. Why are we saying in? Just say well, if you, if you feel the need to say, just say, welcome.

• 6:59Sean Hayes?

  Wait, two, two that I have that I don't like is because I watch a lot of, I watch a lot of football now, as you know.

• 7:04Will Arnett?

  Have a day.

• 7:04Sean Hayes?

  Have a day is, uh, is, I, well, I said this the other day, when all the announcers always go, as we got some play action, they like just saying play action, just say they have the ball or whatever they're doing.

• 7:15Will Arnett?

  I brought that up to, uh, to our friend that we did the show with, uh, JB, I brought that up to Peyton Manning last week.

• 7:21Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 7:22Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I brought up that, I said that you hated the, uh, that they, they overuse play action.

• 7:26Sean Hayes?

  Play action, yeah. Cause they make it make, and it's, and then when you're on a, when you're on a flight, they go, uh, um, uh, stewardess cross check, cross check and something.

• 7:35Jason Bateman?

  Cross check.

• 7:35Sean Hayes?

  Cross check.

• 7:37Will Arnett?

  Is the door secure or not?

• 7:38Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 7:39Sean Hayes?

  How about, how about? Check the door.

• 7:40Jason Bateman?

  You know what I'm glad they're not saying much more, uh, much anymore is, uh, touch base.

• 7:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah, let me touch base.

• 7:48Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, by no way, yeah. I'm gonna touch, I circle back, I'm gonna circle back.

• 7:51Jason Bateman?

  Circle back, or, uh, in the theater world, they say, oh, oh, it's in a great space. Oh, we found a great space to do that piece.

• 7:58Will Arnett?

  If we're gonna go deep, if we're gonna go deep these days.

• 8:00Sean Hayes?

  A, welcome in, again. Welcome in is bad.

• 8:04Will Arnett?

  I guess it feels kind of folksy, but the other thing that has exploded in the last couple of years.

• 8:09Jason Bateman?

  Breathe well.

• 8:10Will Arnett?

  Has, well, for, for the five years before it was, people all of a sudden discovered the word narrative who didn't know it and, and they used it, overused it.

• 8:17Jason Bateman?

  That's true, that's true.

• 8:18Will Arnett?

  But the other one is, to your point, everybody go, to his point.

• 8:22Sean Hayes?

  Oh, but I say it all the time on this show.

• 8:24Will Arnett?

  I know, you say it a lot, you sound like a moron, and, and that, it, it has been you, you do, you, and, and. And it is so overused.

• 8:35Sean Hayes?

  No, but I mean, because you want.

• 8:36Jason Bateman?

  The one that's very overused now is right. They will, very educated people will be telling a story and we're going along, right? And blah, blah, blah, right? It's like, no, you don't need to keep pulling me along with right. I'm with you, I'm nodding.

• 8:50Will Arnett?

  Pulling me along. I think that that's been around for a while, though. I feel like.

• 8:55Jason Bateman?

  It's used much, much, much more often now.

• 8:58Sean Hayes?

  My god, you guys, we have to get to the guest.

• 8:59Jason Bateman?

  We're gonna get to you in a second.

• 9:01Will Arnett?

  Okay, so I know that I complain a lot and all of that shit drives me crazy and, um, and, and I'm sorry. So thank you for bringing, however, you know what doesn't drive me crazy? You know, I'm really excited about it. Sean, you know what I'm gonna say?

• 9:14Sean Hayes?

  Uh oh.

• 9:15Will Arnett?

  It's the new Smartless Media.

• 9:17Sean Hayes?

  Clueless.

• 9:18Will Arnett?

  Clueless.

• 9:19Sean Hayes?

  It's a new show.

• 9:19Jason Bateman?

  It's a new podcast.

• 9:21Will Arnett?

  I set you up.

• 9:23Sean Hayes?

  I know, but I wanted you to give it to you.

• 9:26Jason Bateman?

  Could it be called a podlet?

• 9:27Sean Hayes?

  Oh, it's a podlet.

• 9:28Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, because it's only like 10 minutes long.

• 9:30Sean Hayes?

  Yes, that's great.

• 9:31Will Arnett?

  It's a little podlet, Jason, you are, I would smooch you right now.

• 9:34Sean Hayes?

  So this is a new podlet called Smartless Presents Clueless.

• 9:37Will Arnett?

  Just a million little kisses. I'm gonna smooch you.

• 9:42Sean Hayes?

  So, so yeah, so that's great. It's called, it's a podlet. It is called Smartless Presents Clueless and it's a bite-sized, twice-weekly puzzle podcast. There's a bunch of puzzles, like, if you like Wordle and stuff like that and the New York Times Crosswords, you'll love this. They're 10 to 12 minute podlets. It's really fun. Uh, the, uh, host is Elliot Kalin. Um, he's the former head writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

• 10:05Jason Bateman?

  So you're the permanent contestant or the permanent host?

• 10:08Sean Hayes?

  Permanent contestant.

• 10:09Will Arnett?

  You're a permanent contestant and then other contestants come and they, they work in conjunction with you.

• 10:14Sean Hayes?

  And you guys were, did the first show?

• 10:16Will Arnett?

  We did it.

• 10:16Sean Hayes?

  Yes.

• 10:17Jason Bateman?

  I was kinda clueless about what it was about until I got on it.

• 10:20Will Arnett?

  Very, very, very nice.

• 10:22Sean Hayes?

  So every Monday and Thursday, don't miss the fun. Uh, you can subscribe to Clueless, uh, wherever you get your podcasts. Anyway, let's get on to the guest.

• 10:29Jason Bateman?

  Smartless.

• 10:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. Uh, my guest today, this is very exciting. This is a long time coming for me. Huge fan. My guest today is a box office powerhouse. I refer to her as the triple A actress. I'll explain in a little bit. In the early 2000s, you might remember her as a ballet dancer trying to get picked for the American Ballet Academy in New York City or from taking a cross-country road trip with Britney Spears. Uh, anything? However, her recent notable characters are mostly blue and green in complexion. And I can't wait for the new movie to come out. I can't wait to talk about it. And although she herself is hip and cool, every sci-fi nerd like me knows who she is. It's the magnetic, the most incredible, Zoe Saldana.

• 11:08Jason Bateman?

  Zoe Saldana. Hello there. Good morning. I'm so excited. This is so exciting for me.

• 11:16Speaker 06

  First of all, it was exciting to listen to you guys talk. I was mesmerized by just the normal conversation.

• 11:22Will Arnett?

  We're always nervous that we're like, the person is sitting there thinking like, these guys are ding dong.

• 11:29Jason Bateman?

  Hey, I'm so excited to see Amelia Perez. I have it.

• 11:33Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I'm seeing it tomorrow.

• 11:35Jason Bateman?

  Well, should we watch it tonight?

• 11:38Sean Hayes?

  Can, do you have it?

• 11:39Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 11:40Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 11:40Speaker 06

  Oh my God, please watch it tonight.

• 11:42Jason Bateman?

  Okay. And then we're gonna, then what, where should we email our notes? Cause you guys aren't locked yet, right?

• 11:50Jason Bateman?

  Well, get them to you just in time.

• 11:51Sean Hayes?

  You guys can do pickups, right?

• 11:52Speaker 06

  I'll give you, I'll give you my, my email and then you can, you can, I'll forward it to Jacques. Actually, I'll give you Jacques Odegaard's email. And you can send it to him. Google translated it to French, though. He doesn't speak English.

• 12:04Jason Bateman?

  Is that true? Was all the communication via an interpreter during the film?

• 12:08Speaker 06

  Yes, yes. We had, we had many interpreters and there were many languages spoken. It was Spanish and English and French and some Italian.

• 12:22Jason Bateman?

  And are you bilingual? Do you speak all of those?

• 12:24Speaker 06

  I'm kind of. I was raised bilingual, but I'm kind of trilingual now because my husband's Italian.

• 12:30Jason Bateman?

  Oh, wow.

• 12:31Speaker 06

  And I picked it up after so many years.

• 12:33Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 12:33Speaker 06

  I'm also always figuring out whether or not he was hustling me. Italians are hustlers. Wait, wait, wait, what do you, it speaks flow. What is that? No, but it was, it was great. But Jacques is known for, you know, working outside of his language. This is not the first foreign, you know, film that he's done. He did a film called Deepbound, which was with these Indian actors. And then he did a film years before called A Prophet. And that was that had some Arabic as well. He's not defined by language. He he likes to kind of connect with human beings.

• 13:08Sean Hayes?

  Oh, wow.

• 13:09Speaker 06

  You know, and challenge himself. And, you know, when it comes to whether or not they speak the same tongue, he just likes to find ways to communicate with people and connect with people.

• 13:18Sean Hayes?

  I love that.

• 13:19Jason Bateman?

  You know, that would be, don't you think that would be really difficult to gauge somebody's performance if you if it's not in your native tongue? Right? Because I mean, think about all the ways you can you can vary a reading of a line and the nuance of it. And if you don't know the language that there, it's hard to read intonation. I I can't, I don't know.

• 13:39Speaker 06

  Maybe, but here's here's the thing. I I think as somebody that speaks, you know, different languages, but also understanding that English is a very distinct, you know, language. I feel like that exists mainly in English rather than like the romantic languages. It's more of um, it's more of a feeling than than the words like, you know, like.

• 14:05Sean Hayes?

  I was gonna say.

• 14:06Speaker 06

  It's it's hard to explain.

• 14:08Sean Hayes?

  Jason, I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but love is a universal language.

• 14:11Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what? What's love? Tell me what.

• 14:15Speaker 06

  I know, it's side dish.

• 14:17Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. When did you guys finish that?

• 14:19Speaker 06

  We shot it, uh, we shot it summer of twenty twenty three.

• 14:24Jason Bateman?

  Okay.

• 14:25Sean Hayes?

  Oh, wow.

• 14:25Speaker 06

  From April, from April to like July, right? And and we we wrapped right before the strike, like a couple of days before the strike.

• 14:33Sean Hayes?

  Are you so happy with it? By the way, I'm I I it's in my notes to get to like at the end of this interview, but we're talking about it now. You, including three of your co-stars, won the award in Cannes for best.

• 14:43Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 14:44Sean Hayes?

  For best performances, right? It's pretty, pretty outstanding. I can't wait to see this. It looks because on paper, I was reading the description. It's like singing and dancing and this and that and other but other like storylines that I want to give away, but like it sounds incredible.

• 14:59Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, and there's like danger and like a robbery or something too, right? Or like, I mean, it's it's got everything.

• 15:03Speaker 06

  You know, it dabbles in so many different genres and it doesn't stay in one place. And I feel like that that just feels fresh. You know?

• 15:11Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:12Speaker 06

  We all signed up to to work with Jacques Audiard. I've been a fan of his work since I was a teenager. And he was, you know, one of those like top three directors in my bucket list that I thought would never happen.

• 15:23Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 15:24Speaker 06

  Um, when this opportunity came, it's like a niche of a niche movie. It's in Spanish, it's a musical. It centers around four women. Um, the main character goes through a major transition, you know, trying to to find herself. And and um, everything about this felt dangerous and super risky. So it was totally aligned with what I want to do, with who I feel like I am, you know, and I want to reconnect with that part of me as an artist. Um, I didn't think that it was going to be seen by many, many people. I just thought I was gonna scratch something out of my bucket list and feel so happy that I collaborated with an amazing filmmaker. Cannes was a surprise for us.

• 16:06Sean Hayes?

  Isn't that amazing?

• 16:07Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, how was that there? Was it was it just like all like the pomp and circumstance of that festival? And it was just like glamorous and fantastic all the way through it? It must have been amazing.

• 16:17Speaker 06

  Yeah, well, I mean, and and he is, you know, he's a fan favorite. Um, they're very proud of of their own, you know.

• 16:24Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:25Speaker 06

  So Cannes was a wonderful festival to premiere Amelia. But I think it's the movie. I think this movie feels really important and it's audacious and it's provocative and it's a bit campy and melodramatic. And and those are things that I think audiences are are wanting to have a little bit more of. Sometimes films can be so linear and um, and that makes them a little, I don't know, cold, sterile. You know, stories sometimes can get really sterile when you try to do everything right. What if you throw everything away and you sort of go off script?

• 17:00Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 06

  And and you fall and you collaborate with your artists as opposed to sort of kind of being super stuck with a vision and this is the vision and this is the vision. Jacques sort of like is is very much a traditional director, but he's also a person that is yearning to to connect with people, you know, through cinema.

• 17:20Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 17:21Speaker 06

  Um, otherwise, he would be locked up in his room like just reading. That's he's an avid reader, he's an intellectual mind. And um, and he's a bit shy in social gatherings. So so cinema and storytelling is the way that he kind of connects with with the world. And and the way that he allows his artists and also every every department to add to the story, it just felt it felt like an like an experiment. And and that within itself became the experience of Amelia Perez for us.

• 17:51Sean Hayes?

  Wow, that's so cool.

• 17:52Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 17:54Jason Bateman?

  And we will be right back.

• 17:59Jason Bateman?

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• 19:30Jason Bateman?

  And now, back to the show.

• 19:33Will Arnett?

  Zoe, you talk about bucket lists. Where did that bucket list start for you? Where and when? Where were you when you decided that you wanted to be a performer?

• 19:43Speaker 06

  Um. It's funny, I'm a Gemini. I live a very absent minded life. I don't make conscious decisions. I just, I go with the flow. I knew what I didn't want to do.

• 19:57Sean Hayes?

  Uh huh.

• 19:57Will Arnett?

  But when, sorry, sorry, but where was that? Like where were you? Where'd you grow up? Like where?

• 20:03Speaker 06

  New York. I was born in New York. I was born in Jersey, but I don't like to say that.

• 20:08Sean Hayes?

  Close enough.

• 20:08Speaker 06

  I, but because we're New Yorkers since nineteen sixty-one, like I'm a daughter of immigrants and my grandma arrived there in nineteen sixty-one and we're like native New Yorkers, right? So in New York partially, and then at the age of ten, we moved to the Caribbean. So we did sort of like the reverse migration. We went back to where my family's from and I did, you know, my formative years, like from ten to seventeen, ten to eighteen, I lived there. And then we returned back to New York. I think that um my, the beginning of my bucket list happened unconsciously. I must have been like six or seven and James Cameron was probably the first name there.

• 20:45Sean Hayes?

  Oh wow.

• 20:45Speaker 06

  Along with like Steven Spielberg. There were films that were very memorable to me when I was growing up because of the characters. Like Sarah Connor was this character that just spoke to me. She just, and Ellen Ripley. Ellen Ripley spoke to me. She was just this amazing woman that found ways to survive against these extraterrestrials that were looking to use her body, you know, as a host and.

• 21:10Sean Hayes?

  And what a gamble for James at the time or for anybody to stick a woman in the lead of that with that much power. Yeah, and strength.

• 21:16Speaker 06

  And for Steven Spielberg, you know, the E.T. man, the shark man to then, you know, direct The Color Purple. And Whoopi Goldberg, this, this character became so, you know, when your little life is just bigger and brighter and more impactful. So I think that unconsciously I was tapping into art in the way that films were just taking me with them. You know, and, and making, building a reality for me that was healing, that was medicinal, you know, when I needed it. Like I was very much, I'm one of three girls, but I.

• 21:55Speaker 06

  I'm a solitary person like I, you know, and maybe, maybe there's a little bit of I'm on the spectrum of some sort, I guess. But in the eighties, nobody really talked about that, you know?

• 22:04Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 22:05Speaker 06

  But my sisters are able to sustain relationships and with friends and function. And I was sort of like this loner, you know, that was protected by my sisters because sometimes I would annoy people. Because of whatever what was, you know, so art and storytelling became my go to place. You know, reading books and, and science fiction and watching films and being these characters, you know, became really real to me. And it wasn't until like I was a teenager and I kept clashing. My dad died when I was nine. I'm telling you everything. I feel like Chunk.

• 22:38Sean Hayes?

  This is great.

• 22:39Speaker 06

  From the Goonies, you know? Everything, everything. Okay, I'll try.

• 22:46Sean Hayes?

  That's great.

• 22:47Speaker 06

  But no, you know, my dad died and my sisters and I, we were eight, nine and 10. And that was like a big, you know, life changing sort of event in our lives. And art became this healing sort of, you know, assistant to my mom and to us that really helped us. So they did, my sisters became, she painted and Cicely and I, my younger sister and I, we started dancing ballet. And, um, and that helped me sort of art, it helped me just cope with, with shit, you know? Cause life is hard when you're little, socializing, starting over in a new environment, different language, different people, different culture. Like that's always like a very big thing for kids.

• 23:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 23:30Speaker 06

  And, um.

• 23:31Sean Hayes?

  I heard you say in an interview once that you, I don't know if you were joking or not, that you, um, you were kind of an arsonist at some point?

• 23:38Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 23:39Sean Hayes?

  Is that true?

• 23:40Speaker 06

  Well, I, I have, I have three boys and one of my boy just lives on his own. He's like this lone little wolf and I, I guess I, I feel kindred to him. Um, yes, I would do, I would do weird shit that, that, that my mom, I think that my mom became an insomnia because I would wake up in the middle of the night. I don't remember these things, by the way, like she, now she's just joking. You know, mentioning them. And I'm just like, well, mom, that's some serious stuff. She goes, I know, I know. Like one time you just, you, you, you, I don't know if you were sleepwalking, you just turned on the hot water and you got in the tub and you burned yourself.

• 24:17Will Arnett?

  Oh, geez.

• 24:18Speaker 06

  It was like two o'clock in the morning and she was just like, is my kid crazy? Like, am I not really addressing this? Like, is my kid off? Like, I would turn on toasters and, or like, you know, like, like, oh, turn on the stove and to boil an egg. But I wouldn't put water in the pot. I would just throw the eggs inside the pot. I would like, I guess you said, and at one point you liked the way the, the eggs sounded when they broke inside the pot. And I was like, oh, how interesting. So I have a little one that does that.

• 24:45Will Arnett?

  Well, it was like sleep, it was probably sleepwalking, no?

• 24:47Speaker 06

  Or just curious, just a naturally curious child that probably needed a lot of verbal communication in order for me to understand my senses, my sensations. I was a sensory seeker. I was always like seeking things that cater to my, my ears and taste and my, my feelings. It's, it's, um, it's just sensory seeking, I guess.

• 25:11Will Arnett?

  I want to know, I think we all want to know how you started performing. Like, was it a school play or was it an inspiration from a show or a movie or something? Like, what was the thing that got you? What was that first thing that got you going performing?

• 25:27Speaker 06

  Um, I, I transitioned, I danced ballet for like 10 years. And I realized that I couldn't break, I couldn't shut on my glass ceiling. I didn't have the feet.

• 25:37Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 25:37Speaker 06

  And that became a very just painful confession to tell yourself, you know? But then it was like transition. I love storytelling and I was able to tell stories with my body. So I was in this little theater company in the city. Um, and I was, I was, I was playing Mrs. Potiphar from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Musical. And there was a manager there.

• 26:01Will Arnett?

  About to sing all the songs, but Joseph, he will, yeah, exactly.

• 26:05Speaker 06

  It's such a great musical. And there was a manager there and she signed me. And I first started going to, like, I, I would book commercials. So my first gigs were doing, I, I didn't. Did a Birkin commercial, two for two or something, just the two of us. And I remember I got my SAG card from that. Yeah, but that's big, though. I mean, that's a big, that's a big deal. And that's, and that's when I knew I'm like, what, one, I didn't want to do commercials. I knew then and I was like, I just wanna, I wanna act. I wanna, I wanna play characters. I wanna tell stories. I wanna be other people.

• 26:35Jason Bateman?

  Well, uh, Zoe, the, the amount of big, huge budget spectacle films that you've done is.

• 26:41Sean Hayes?

  It's sounding.

• 26:42Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know if anyone's done more than you.

• 26:46Sean Hayes?

  Well, Jason, I, I refer to you in the intro as a triple, the triple A actress, which means the top three movies of all time. You're starring in, which is, which is Avatar, Avatar, The Way of Water and Avengers. You're probably the only actor in all three. That's crazy.

• 27:03Speaker 06

  Today, today. I, I, I know that these records were, will, will always be.

• 27:08Jason Bateman?

  But that's astonishing. But then there's Guardians and then there's.

• 27:12Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, it's pretty incredible.

• 27:13Jason Bateman?

  Even like the, the smaller films are cool. Like Out of the Furnace is one of my favorite movies of all time.

• 27:19Speaker 06

  Oh, my God, it was such a great story.

• 27:20Jason Bateman?

  Stunningly good. Um.

• 27:22Sean Hayes?

  And Center Stage, I love Center Stage, by the way.

• 27:24Jason Bateman?

  Do you have a, um, I mean, I bet you'll say you like doing both, which I'm sure everybody would, but. You know, when you're on one of those big, huge movie sets, like you, you might not do much more than like a half a page over the course of a week. Right? Where you're doing the smaller films, you're doing like five, six pages a day sometimes. And do you have a, do you have a preference?

• 27:43Speaker 06

  Um, I mean.

• 27:45Jason Bateman?

  The big ones are exciting.

• 27:46Speaker 06

  I like everything. I think, I think that, you know, that I'm gonna answer the way you were expecting, but, uh, uh, you know.

• 27:53Speaker 06

  Avatar was really special in the sense that the way that we shoot it.

• 27:59Speaker 06

  I, I wish, I wish people can understand that the technology does not substitute. The performances, it only supplements the performances, you know, and.

• 28:08Sean Hayes?

  Totally. And you got things sticking out of your head and you're so real. I mean, you're like in it.

• 28:13Speaker 06

  And we go through months of training because it is, it's, it's basically Jim paints. You know, those pixel, pixelated, you know, things over what we do.

• 28:25Speaker 06

  So he's, it's not that we sit in a studio and we record like an animation. Is it all the work that you do is the work that you see, you know, on Avatar? And that form of acting is incredibly, um, just exciting.

• 28:42Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 28:42Jason Bateman?

  So what you guys do is you'll stand and you will perform the scene and they will shoot it with a camera just like normal. And then, and this is a question, and then afterwards, they then take that real footage, which usually is, is the movie that we all see. But they take that footage and then they create a digital version of your bodies? And basically create effectively digitally animated characters from it?

• 29:09Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 29:10Jason Bateman?

  Okay.

• 29:10Speaker 06

  But it's not an animator that is guessing, you know, or estimating how you're moving. No, no, it is your performance because it's, they have these reference cameras.

• 29:22Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 29:22Speaker 06

  But they, but Jim has also created this like, you know, this, this, this gimbal of a camera.

• 29:29Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 29:29Speaker 06

  That is, it's in Pandora. So when you're moving, there, there are all these big screens. Let me know if I lose you. When we're shooting, we're shooting in a set that we call the volume. And the reason why it's the volume is because all these cameras that are attached in the ceiling of our, of our, our set are pointing all through this sort of square, this space that's called the volume. So once you're in and you have all these dots and you have to, you rom yourself in, so you, they enter you into the system.

• 29:58Jason Bateman?

  There's all these motion capture points on your body, yeah?

• 30:01Speaker 06

  And you're wearing this helmet that has these cameras here that are also then registering every single muscle on your face. So they sync all of that information and you then, once you enter the volume, you're, you're in Pandora on real time. So I, you and I can be talking, standing in the volume. And if we stare at the screens that he has all through the volume facing us, we're seeing ourselves as avatars in Pandora where we're standing. So what, what he does is he documents.

• 30:35Speaker 06

  Everything and his it it's he's his technicians that he works with people, you know, from Wada in New Zealand and he has people from all over the world and they're, but they're mainly here in Los Angeles and in New Zealand. They're just basically painting over what we're doing because it's already in the system. Does that make sense? Yeah.

• 30:54Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. And is is the is the overall goal of that as opposed to like, let's say in Star Wars, you have like a real person mixed into a a later down the down the line created digital environments. You have a real person in a created digital environment.

• 31:11Speaker 06

  Like a green screen.

• 31:12Jason Bateman?

  Right. In Avatar, the is the goal, the reason that he's taking you and putting you into a digital form so that your digital form is in the same medium as the digitally created environment as well. So there's no difference between the, say, a human body in a digital form, in a digital environment in Star Wars versus with this, it's a digital form inside a digital environment. So everything is the same in the medium. Is that is that is that the reasoning?

• 31:42Speaker 06

  I think so. You kind of blew my mind there. I, you know, I was like, oh, my God, he's really taken it there. Um, yes, yes. If what if what you're saying is what I'm understanding, then yes.

• 31:53Sean Hayes?

  Yes. Will you call me later and explain it to me what he did say?

• 31:56Jason Bateman?

  It's funny, he was just trying to put everything in the same thing, right?

• 32:00Speaker 06

  Yes. Well, Jim has always said that that putting a human being with an animation always felt

• 32:08Jason Bateman?

  Two different things.

• 32:08Speaker 06

  Unreal. It it it looks different. It's like it's like, um, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Remember like how Zemeckis, it's Zemeckis, right? That's that's George Lucas. Is it Zemeckis or Lucas that did Roger Rabbit?

• 32:19Jason Bateman?

  Robert Zemeckis.

• 32:20Speaker 06

  Robert Zemeckis. Thank you. Um, so these filmmakers have always been ahead of their time and they've always tried to re sort of invent the technology that is able then to allow them to to capture their vision. Jim is is that same. I I call them kind of scientists. They're they're because they're they're inventing things that that will later on down the line just just evolve the way that we make films and the way that we view films, right?

• 32:45Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 32:46Speaker 06

  So for Jim, the challenge was to make a human being and an alien, an animated alien, look as if they were in the same medium. Yes. So that was that was his goal and he achieved it with Avatar.

• 32:58Jason Bateman?

  And you're doing number four and number five right now?

• 33:01Speaker 06

  And yes, we finished three, so now they're they're just, you know, they have a year now to to basically render all of the information that we shot, everything that we shot.

• 33:10Sean Hayes?

  So and how long did it take to shoot your scenes, the the actor scenes?

• 33:14Speaker 06

  Well, I'm only I only play a Navi, I'm not an Avatar, so ours is the shortest sort of shoot, and it takes anywhere between five to seven months to shoot.

• 33:26Sean Hayes?

  Wow.

• 33:26Speaker 06

  And then after that, um, then then they go to New Zealand and they spend a year there sometimes, shooting live action, and they'll do the green screen, and then they'll they'll assemble the whole thing in the same medium. And that takes a lot of time. It's it's, you know.

• 33:41Sean Hayes?

  I mean, the first time I saw it, I have to say, you know, we're getting to your other movies other than just Avatar. But your your your portrayal of Neteri is like, I was so real. I I I that had to be like, when I went in, I was like, what's this gonna be about? I kind of like had a thing and I was like, you know, that years and years ago when the first one came out. And I was like, wow, that's like, that's Zoe being like, being this person. It was wild to see, wild to see, and incredible.

• 34:09Speaker 06

  It's beautiful when when actors collaborate with their filmmakers. And that was the very first time that I had an experience where I was cast very early on in the process of putting the Navi together, you know, in terms of how do they walk, how do they speak? What is the, how how do they speak English with a Navi accent, all these things like, and I was like, I was twenty seven. And and working with my my childhood dream of a director, the Sarah Connor creator, and and um, and he was, he he was allowing me to collaborate with with bringing the not V to to life.

• 34:48Speaker 06

  So I was working with Cirque du Soleil performers and and dialect people and and stunt people. Like, how do they fight? How do they move? You know, that tail, it's it's kind of like an extra limb. It felt like going to school or or being in a laboratory and conceiving a brand new organ, like, you know.

• 35:08Sean Hayes?

  Totally, because I didn't I didn't expect to. Feel is what I meant to say. I didn't expect to feel as much as I felt. I didn't expect to get emotional. And you did it. So it's such a feat. By the way, sidebar, combined, your sci fi films have earned over $4 billion at the box office.

• 35:23Jason Bateman?

  Four billion.

• 35:25Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, isn't that amazing?

• 35:26Jason Bateman?

  Hope you have a great deal.

• 35:27Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, you're the only actor in history to have starred in four films that have grossed over $2 billion individually.

• 35:33Jason Bateman?

  Two billion.

• 35:34Sean Hayes?

  Can you give me a round?

• 35:35Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what did you just say? What did you just say?

• 35:37Sean Hayes?

  She's the only actor in history to have starred in four films that have grossed over $2 billion individually.

• 35:42Jason Bateman?

  Wow. Jesus.

• 35:44Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 35:44Speaker 06

  I like, I like that you say starred. That's, that's really, that's really nice. For half, for half of those projects, I was a part of them, but it, but I know, I do, I feel, I feel fortunate to know that I've been a part of great projects that appeal to massive audiences. It gives me, gives me a sensation of like, of connection, like I'm connecting with human beings that even though I, I will never ever meet them, I'm connected to them, to them somehow through the stories that impact them, that impact me by being a part of, you know? And, you know, I've always said this, it's not bad for, you know, little brown girl from Queens.

• 36:21Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 36:22Speaker 06

  I feel, I feel excited.

• 36:24Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 36:27Speaker 07

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• 36:59Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 37:03Jason Bateman?

  Was there any other thing that you ever contemplated doing when you were a little girl?

• 37:08Speaker 06

  Um, I love animals and children, so there's... Two groups I love to work with. I think I would have gone into some form of like psychology for with and working with children. There's, there's something about just understanding children and, and really looking at them for who they are and not overestimating them or underestimating them that, that is, you know, it's, it's always, will always be my goal. It's to sort of go, oh my God, where are you? Who are you? What are you? And how can I reach you? You know, it doesn't mean I'm the best mom, but I wake up every day and that's like, that's the, the, the only role

• 37:53Speaker 06

  that I want to pursue every day.

• 37:55Jason Bateman?

  How old are your boys?

• 37:57Speaker 06

  Uh, they're going, they're nine, nine and seven.

• 38:00Jason Bateman?

  Wow.

• 38:01Will Arnett?

  Okay, nine, nine and seven. So, so now that you're a parent, is, is there anything that you recognize as being a very sort of American way of parenting as opposed to how you were raised and, and what you experienced?

• 38:17Speaker 06

  Oh God, I love the American way of parenting when it's, you know, in, in the, in the sense of this, there's this curiosity to always evolve and figure out better ways of communication with children. I love that. I love that. And, and, and you know, this quest to, to verbally just, um, you know, create freedom where children can communicate their emotions and their feelings earlier and earlier. I love that about American ways of parenting and the Latino ways of parenting I love because it's all, it's all heart. It's very much heart. The child is allowed to be dramatic and excessively dramatic.

• 39:02Speaker 06

  Like it's just, you know, we, we talk about death, we normalize death. And we don't, we don't sterilize it. We, we, it's passion. There's a lot of passion and fire in the way that we raise children, Latinos. But things that I can live without is this, you respect your superiors, you don't, you don't question things. You just, I love that my kids question everything.

• 39:26Jason Bateman?

  What's the Italian way to raise?

• 39:27Speaker 06

  Oh my God. It's, it's just gelato every day.

• 39:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 39:31Speaker 06

  Gelato every day. And, and you know, it's, it's a culture that's very, you know, it's very, um, I mean Latinos and Italians are very similar. They're just affectionate. The fathers are very affectionate with their children. And I love that.

• 39:46Will Arnett?

  Do you spend a lot of time over there in Europe with your kids? Do you guys go over there?

• 39:48Speaker 06

  We do, we do.

• 39:49Sean Hayes?

  You do? And, and Marco, I think it's so cool. Marco's your husband. Marco took your last name.

• 39:54Speaker 06

  He did.

• 39:55Sean Hayes?

  Come on. That's so, that's so cool.

• 39:57Jason Bateman?

  Wait, walk me through that conversation.

• 40:00Speaker 06

  That came from him. I, um, we get married. I had no intentions of changing my name. And, but we never discussed it. It was just, I was, I, I just had it there. I'm like, in case the conversation comes up, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let him down slowly that I'm going to remain Zoe Saldaña. And maybe throughout the years, if we earn it, then maybe I can take a Perego somewhere.

• 40:26Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 40:27Speaker 06

  And he was immediately, he's like, I'm gonna be Marco Perego Saldaña.

• 40:32Sean Hayes?

  Wow.

• 40:32Speaker 06

  Are you sure? You should probably just do it, you know, in our personal lives, but keep your professional name, you know, as who you are. Society sometimes doesn't really understand. He goes, I don't give a shit.

• 40:43Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 40:44Speaker 06

  Like, I'm proud of your name. I, I love your father's name, you know?

• 40:47Will Arnett?

  What was the impetus for that, though, for him, do you think?

• 40:50Speaker 06

  Um, for him, it was... I mean, I get emotional. My father died when I was nine and I've never, I mean, I have a, I have a wonderful stepdad that's been in our lives since I was thirteen. And, and he's my dad, you know, but my, my, my biological father, that bond, that connection to your blood was lost, abruptly lost very early on. So it's not something you ever heal from. It's just you learn to manage that pain of, of loss.

• 41:16Sean Hayes?

  Right, right, right.

• 41:16Speaker 06

  And um, when we, when we fell in love and we got married, he knows how strong of a presence my father still is in my life. Cause as Latinos, we keep, we live with our dead. We live with them. We actively talk about them as if they're here, you know?

• 41:32Sean Hayes?

  Did your family or your mom like um, back then like uh, suggest therapy like for, for a young, a young child like yourself to go through such?

• 41:41Speaker 06

  We did it, yeah.

• 41:42Sean Hayes?

  Or did they, or did you get through it as a family and was like, no, we don't believe in that. We're gonna get through this together?

• 41:46Speaker 06

  No, no, no. It was a combination of both.

• 41:49Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, that's good. Very smart.

• 41:50Speaker 06

  We, we were still living in the States when he passed away and, and um, and you know, when, back in the eighties, public schools in New York were incredible. They were just incredible. So immediately, as soon as we came back from the funeral, they bombarded us with just love and support. And for my mom as well, they, you know, they um, my mom, you know, had places to go to and sort of cope with this and, and you know, gain new tools on how to be like this single parent moving forward.

• 42:21Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:21Speaker 06

  And then when we went back to Dominican Republic, then that was when we moved there then to live. Um, then it was very much like, no, we stick together. God will always find his way. So that had his, that had its good things and also bad things, you know, and, and um, and my mom did feel very isolated at times. When it came to just trying to talk to a professional, but the love and support was always abundant in our family, you know?

• 42:47Sean Hayes?

  Oh, that's great. That's great. And, and um, wait, if you don't mind, how did you meet your husband? I think he, didn't he hit on you on the plane once or something and then you turned him down? On the plane? How did he find you after the?

• 42:58Speaker 06

  He just, he's very Italian and, and I, and I, you know, I'm, I love the Italian culture, but I'm also like, I'm keeping it at bay. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's very, it's a very romantic and seductive culture. So he meets you and he's this like pirate looking, probably the most handsomest man I'll ever meet in my life and. And um, and I met him on a plane, but we knew each other. We knew of each other through mutual friends. And it was always like, oh, there's that guy. There's that really handsome, hot, motherfucking guy. That I should always stay away from. Cause he looks at you and he just has that suave look and everything. And when he talks to you, he had that little, you know, they, they kind of hide their real manly voice. And I'm like, why are you such a high pitched, fucking voice when you talk to me?

• 43:43Speaker 06

  And I'm a New Yorker. I'm very much like, come on, man, talk to me. And um, but he's gentle. My husband is a very gentle um, man.

• 43:50Sean Hayes?

  That's so great. And you, and you teach, you teach your kids um, Spanish and Italian at home or?

• 43:56Speaker 06

  I mean, we don't necessarily teach it. We just are. That's how we, that we, we slip in and out of all these languages.

• 44:04Sean Hayes?

  That's so cool.

• 44:05Speaker 06

  And, and it's funny, cause I grew up as like a daughter of immigrants where you, you live a double life. You feel like you're like double oh seven, where in your house, you're like, hola, abuela, blah, blah, blah. And you're very Latina. And the moment you step out, you kind of go adios, sort of, hey, what's up? How you doing? Like you did, you learned to code switch, right? And because it's, they're, they're so hard on you. Like you don't forget your culture. You don't forget where you come from. And it was very much like that. And I appreciate that today. So, and then I marry an immigrant who's very much about, I'm Italian, Italian forever. We're Italians, we're la, la, la, la, la. And, and so when the boys were little, they spoke only Italian and Spanish. But as soon as they start going to school and I start dialoguing with them, I go into what feels very, you know, I'm.

• 44:49Sean Hayes?

  And they pick up on it.

• 44:51Speaker 06

  And we became very English oriented in the way that we bond. And then that's when my husband's family, cause our folks live here in the States and, and my parents also live in California. They were just like, you need to talk to them, duh, duh, duh. And I had to kind of have an intervention. I'm like, y'all need to chill. Okay? You guys all chose to come here. We're all here. They are American as well as they are this and this. So share, like, we're gonna, I'm gonna allow you guys to share. Who we are inherently, but they they don't force them.

• 45:25Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 45:25Speaker 06

  Cause we're we're eating in Italian and Spanish. We are dancing and we are communicating in it. That's already enough. It's go it's going to be there, but don't force it to them. Cause then they're going to reject it. Like I tried to reject it when I was little and they kind of like, it was a nice intervention because even my husband, I had to sit him down. I'm like, you need to like, you know, just lay off the gas a little bit.

• 45:46Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:47Speaker 06

  They understand it fluently. They'll speak it with their grandparents, but with me, they speak mainly English. I do speak to them in Spanish a lot when we're in public, when I don't want people to know what I'm saying.

• 45:59Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:59Speaker 06

  And um, and then my husband does the same.

• 46:02Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah. Um, so wait, I want to get back to your career stuff because uh, I'm obviously a massive fan. That's why you're here.

• 46:08Speaker 06

  Shoot.

• 46:08Sean Hayes?

  But um, Lioness, who's season two, that we'll talk about that in a second. I hear that's incredible. We're gonna watch tonight. Uh, Center Stage, I loved.

• 46:16Speaker 06

  Ah.

• 46:17Sean Hayes?

  I know, uh, it was two thousand so long ago, but I loved that movie. And then after that, you did Crossroads with Britney Spears at such a young age when Britney was huge. Were you like, oh, oh my God, I'm in a movie with Britney Spears. I mean, what year was that? That was like two thousand?

• 46:31Speaker 06

  That we started shooting right after, no, pardon me. We we shot, we started shooting early two thousand and one.

• 46:39Sean Hayes?

  One, okay.

• 46:40Speaker 06

  It was before nine eleven. I remember that.

• 46:42Sean Hayes?

  Because you auditioned a lot when you came back from the Dominican Dominican Republic and um, you were still so young when you're auditioning. Do you have any crazy audition stories? I, did you have to do one for for the Britney Spears thing? Did you have to read with her?

• 46:55Speaker 06

  I did, yes. I auditioned, I mean, I auditioned for Amelia Perez too. So it's it's, I mean, it was, but it's more like an interview. Like you just do a conversation. I audition a lot. I I remember I auditioned for a film that you you were doing, Jason.

• 47:09Sean Hayes?

  Uh oh.

• 47:09Speaker 06

  Years ago.

• 47:10Sean Hayes?

  I had nothing to do with it.

• 47:12Speaker 06

  No, no, it's okay. What was the one that you did about the funeral? The the?

• 47:16Sean Hayes?

  Oh, oh, this is where I leave you?

• 47:17Speaker 06

  Yes, yes. I I but I bombed that. I was so bad. I was so bad at that audition. Um.

• 47:24Jason Bateman?

  Wasn't it terrible, right? You can, you can practice as much as you want at home and then you get in that room and the nerves take over and your inability to do what you planned on is just, oh.

• 47:36Speaker 06

  It's awful. I hated that process. I, I really did because it really fed into my anxiety.

• 47:44Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 47:44Speaker 06

  In a way that wasn't healthy. I just, you know, competition and, and, you know, fighting for, for, to prove who you are is, is so hard. I do remember that if it wasn't for just warm people, amazing casting directors, like New York has amazing casting directors that were just human beings, you know, they were nice and gentle and, and I loved walking in and feeling like they were rooting for me.

• 48:11Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 48:11Speaker 06

  Whenever I put, I would put myself on tape, because remember it was like, you have to put yourself on tape when you live in New York. That, that's, that's what you gotta do. And if it wasn't for the fact that people were nice, I would have never booked parts. It's when people are super cold and they were so despondent and I would, I would tank all those auditions.

• 48:29Sean Hayes?

  It doesn't help. It doesn't help. And then you did, by the way, I mean, we could spend two hours, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Terminal with Tom Hanks, Star Trek, Marvel with Guardians of the Galaxy. But I have to say, my husband Scotty, he's a massive, massive, massive Star Trek fan. I'm more of a Star Wars, but because of your films.

• 48:49Jason Bateman?

  This is the only thing they fight about.

• 48:51Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. But, but because of your films and JJ and everybody involved, I was blown away by you and those films. They're so well made and completely gripping and suck you in and in the best way.

• 49:04Jason Bateman?

  There's gotta be another one due soon, right? Another Star, Star Trek movie?

• 49:08Speaker 06

  They're talking about it and I, it would, it would be nice. It would be nice for us to, to come back and sort of do a proper send off to the next generation. Um, look, I, I don't, honestly, I wish I had like a formula. I feel like the only thing that I, that I, that I kept doing was saying yes.

• 49:29Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. Well, that's interesting.

• 49:30Speaker 06

  You know, was just like if, if. I was shooting Avatar and all of a sudden my agents at the time were calling me. He's like, well, J.J. Abrams really wants to meet you for Uhura. He's he's gonna shoot this next Star Trek. I was like, who what? I wasn't a Star Trek fan, my mom was. And I was like, well, okay.

• 49:47Sean Hayes?

  You had me at J.J.

• 49:48Speaker 06

  I know, and I'm like, but I'm working. And and and he's like, well, I think he's gonna come to set. I think I'm like, oh, okay. Because I would I would I would go to the set of Avatar and every day is like, oh, there's Robert Zemeckis, or Steven Spielberg, there's George Lucas, there's, you know, they were always there. And and Jim was giving him the whole walkthrough. So it was very normal for us to see these amazing filmmakers. And one, you know, Jim walks on walks walks to set one day, goes, I have a surprise for you. And I think you're gonna owe me for this one. And I was like, what is he talking about? And J.J. was there. And J.J. was like, hi, Zoe. And and Jim like lets him, you know, touch the camera and do the whole tour. And then and then J.J.'s like, well, are you, I I I definitely want to meet you for for Uhura, for Star Trek.

• 50:30Speaker 06

  And then, you know, J.J. left and and Jim just comes over and goes, you're welcome. And I'm like, for what? I I wasn't really tapping into. And then I get the call like, can you please play Uhura? I was like, absolutely. Look, Lee, are you kidding me?

• 50:43Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, let me think about it, yeah.

• 50:44Speaker 06

  Yes, and then after that, it was just, and then after that, James Gunn comes over and, you know, years later goes, can you play Gamor? I'm like, yeah, of course. And I said, yes, because I wanted to experience prosthetics.

• 50:58Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 50:59Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 50:59Speaker 06

  Makeup, like waking up at three o'clock in the morning and going through the whole nutty professor transformation like, I was like, I want to do that. And then a month in, I was like, I hate this.

• 51:08Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two, three hours sitting in the chair and not doing anything, eating through a straw. Yeah.

• 51:15Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, what about the the series, the Star Trek series where those those people have to be on that every single day for nine, 10 months a year?

• 51:23Speaker 06

  I wouldn't be able to do it.

• 51:24Sean Hayes?

  It never doesn't make me laugh, though, the idea of a of a guy, of an actor in a Klingon, all the Klingon makeup, walking through craft service. That always will make me laugh, just like getting fried chicken and like, you know.

• 51:35Jason Bateman?

  Eating everything, put it in a blender, right through a straw.

• 51:37Speaker 06

  Napkin, like collar napkin, always to not get makeup on their outfits, yeah.

• 51:42Sean Hayes?

  Wait, so all of the travels and all the places you've worked in the world, I want to ask where you would choose to live if you had to pick a place, either fictional or nonfictional?

• 51:55Speaker 06

  Um, Paris.

• 51:56Jason Bateman?

  Hmm.

• 51:56Sean Hayes?

  Oh, really?

• 51:57Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 51:58Sean Hayes?

  You love Paris?

• 51:59Speaker 06

  I love Paris.

• 52:00Sean Hayes?

  Why?

• 52:00Speaker 06

  I love art. I love the fact that people are always outside. Um, I love, I love to walk.

• 52:07Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 52:07Speaker 06

  As a New Yorker, I just, I love to walk down streets of ancient, ancient, you know, history. And, um, and I love eating and drinking wine. So it's just, it's really romantic. And, and there's something really nice about Paris, but also like when you go to Italy, because my second favorite place in Italy, and then it's the Caribbean, I, because I'm from the Caribbean, I love a beach, I love the water. But, um, there's just something very free about Europe that in the summers, you see people in love, living in love in public.

• 52:39Sean Hayes?

  The universal language.

• 52:40Speaker 06

  And, and you'll see these younger couples, like on the Vespa, making out while you're like, you know, taking your kid for a walk. But then the same couple, you come back and they're in the same Vespa, and she's slapping the crap out of them.

• 52:58Speaker 06

  And, and then all of a sudden, he grabs her and shakes her and he kisses her. And you're like, fuck, that's so romantic and dramatic.

• 53:06Sean Hayes?

  Yes, Jason and I are gonna do that later tonight.

• 53:08Jason Bateman?

  Oh, yeah.

• 53:09Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 53:10Jason Bateman?

  Which one do you want to be? You want to be shaken or the shaker?

• 53:15Speaker 06

  Both, both, I'm sure.

• 53:16Sean Hayes?

  Um, well, listen, I could talk to you for 19 hours. We've taken up way too much of your time.

• 53:21Speaker 06

  Me too, you guys. Thank you for this conversation. I've been doing it.

• 53:24Sean Hayes?

  Thank you. I can't wait to see the movie and Lioness. Uh, we didn't talk about Lioness, but Nicole, you and Nicole Kidman, loved the show.

• 53:32Speaker 06

  I love her.

• 53:32Sean Hayes?

  Of course, you're getting a second season. So I can't wait. Um, but, uh, but thank you for being here. Gigantic fan.

• 53:39Speaker 06

  Thank you, guys. Thank you for this conversation. Anytime, I'll come back.

• 53:42Sean Hayes?

  Okay, thank you.

• 53:43Jason Bateman?

  Thank you so much.

• 53:44Sean Hayes?

  Love you.

• 53:44Jason Bateman?

  All right. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.

• 53:46Speaker 06

  You too.

• 53:47Sean Hayes?

  Bye, sweetie.

• 53:49Will Arnett?

  Oh Shawnee.

• 53:50Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I love her. I want to fuck her forever. And she's like, you know, how many people can say, I know we already said in the show.

• 53:56Will Arnett?

  The biggest.

• 53:57Sean Hayes?

  I mean, the three, there's no other, there's no other actor that was in the top three.

• 54:02Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 54:03Sean Hayes?

  Movies of all time.

• 54:04Will Arnett?

  No.

• 54:04Sean Hayes?

  There's no other actor. Isn't that wild?

• 54:06Will Arnett?

  Few, yeah, it's very wild. I mean.

• 54:09Jason Bateman?

  Stunning accomplishment.

• 54:11Will Arnett?

  What, you know what I was thinking about during it is that she's been in all those big, right? And then on the other, I was in Brother Solomon. And if you think about the gap.

• 54:19Jason Bateman?

  There's a lot of daylight in between.

• 54:22Will Arnett?

  There's a lot of daylight. It's all daylight. Let's be honest.

• 54:26Sean Hayes?

  But I didn't even get to the terminal. Remember she was in the terminal with Tom Hanks?

• 54:29Will Arnett?

  Terminal, yes.

• 54:30Sean Hayes?

  She was great.

• 54:31Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 54:31Sean Hayes?

  I really like her a lot and I want to hang out with her.

• 54:34Will Arnett?

  Sure. And to your point, Sean, I mean, it's such an accomplishment, you know?

• 54:39Sean Hayes?

  To my point.

• 54:40Will Arnett?

  Well, welcome in.

• 54:44Sean Hayes?

  Velco, maybe they mean Velcomen.

• 54:46Will Arnett?

  Velcomen.

• 54:47Sean Hayes?

  Velco.

• 54:48Will Arnett?

  By the way, if they were German, then I'm gonna take it, obviously.

• 54:51Jason Bateman?

  They close to the candles.

• 54:52Will Arnett?

  Okay, you know what I mean?

• 54:55Sean Hayes?

  Um, anyway, she's wonderful.

• 54:57Will Arnett?

  She's amazing. She's amazing.

• 54:59Sean Hayes?

  She's one of a kind.

• 55:00Will Arnett?

  She is one of a kind. She's so, she's so rare, I would, I would dare to say.

• 55:05Sean Hayes?

  Uh oh.

• 55:06Jason Bateman?

  Do it. Be brave.

• 55:09Will Arnett?

  You can feel it. This is where it's embarrassing, where you can feel it, is that she's so, you know, people who have been in so many huge films like that, they're not every day. In fact, they're pretty hard to. Come by.

• 55:32Will Arnett?

  Dot edu, smart.

• 55:40Will Arnett?

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• 55:45Will Arnett?

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• 55:57Will Arnett?

  Smart. Less.

• 56:01Speaker 02

  What do I gift my mom and nieces?

• 56:03Speaker 03

  Walmart has top brands you know, like Ninja, Disney, Lego.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  Oh, Dad loves music.

• 56:11Speaker 03

  Sonos can bring his songs to life. What sound that hits just right.

• 56:17Speaker 02

  And my coffee-obsessed bestie?

• 56:19Speaker 03

  Delongi Brews Coffee, right for mornings extra bright.

• 56:23Speaker 02

  All those great brands at Walmart? Who knew?

• 56:25Speaker 03

  We knew, now you do too.

• 56:27Will Arnett?

  Shop gifts no love at Walmart.