The Big Picture

Special Ops: Lioness is a spy thriller series based on the real-life Lioness Program, following a covert CIA team of women in Syria. Zoë Saldaña discusses the collaborative experience of working on the series and her hopes for a Season 2. Saldaña shares her favorite episodes from the season and talks about the challenges of morally disagreeing with her character.

In another poignant series from creator Taylor Sheridan, Paramount+’s Special Ops: Lioness is a spy thriller starring Zoë Saldaña as Marine, Joe McNamara, the leader of this covert CIA team of women. Based on the very real Lioness Program, Sheridan’s series takes viewers to the deserts of Syria where these agents work to turn the loyalties of the women around terrorist leaders, as well as into the home lives of the Lionesses themselves. We see the turmoil and pressure the job puts on Joe, but we also see the humans behind the task forces.

In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Saldaña talks about what makes Lioness so special, from filming on location to that narrative magic that’s earned Sheridan’s shows a massive following. The series star discusses her hopes for a Season 2, what it’s like to morally disagree with your character and still serve the storyline, and which episodes were her favorite. Read the full transcript below to find out more on Saldaña’s upcoming film Emilia Perez, what she has to say about James Cameron’s Avatar 3, and how Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 “gets crazy.”

Special Ops: Lioness also stars Nicole Kidman, Michael Kelly, Laysla De Oliveira, and more. Special Ops: Lioness Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

Special Ops: Lioness Release Date July 23, 2023 Seasons 1

COLLIDER: You’ve done so many cool things in your career. If someone has never seen anything you’ve done before, what is the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

ZOË SALDAÑA: Oh god, I would say two things because I’m really proud of these decisions because I made these decisions. One was like an opportunity of a lifetime, which is Avatar, which is like, they tell you if you book a movie like this and you work for a director like that, then you’re not just off to a good start, you’ve made it. That was my first moment where I felt really seen, so it was wonderful and special. And I would say Lioness, because it was an experience where you had a very seasoned writer-producer that saw me. And it’s not like, “Oh yeah, you’ll do.” It’s more like, “No, I’ll write this for you and I really want it to work out, and I want you to feel proud of it. I want you to produce it with me.” The experience was extremely collaborative as much as Taylor Sheridan allows you to collaborate. [Laughs] But it was extremely collaborative, and it was a wonderful experience.

Related First ‘Avatar 3’ Behind the Scenes Image Offers a Peek at Pandora James Cameron’s upcoming sequel will now arrive in 2025.

Zoë Saldaña Wants to See ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ Season 2
Image via Paramount

Do you think that there will be another season of Lioness? Have you heard anything?

SALDAÑA: Oh, god, I don’t know. I hope so. I really do.

The problem with Taylor is he’s involved in, like, 72 different projects, so I just don’t know what’s going to bubble up next.

SALDAÑA: But wasn’t Mr. Spelling also involved in a whole bunch of projects? And during that time, it was like he was in his golden era. Taylor has a lot of material out there, but all of his material sticks. People love his stuff. And I feel that we need good writers. We need good filmmakers, good producers that come with a good team and carry out a well-rounded execution. I feel like if you watch Lawmen: Bass Reeves and 1923, and you watch Yellowstone and you watch Lioness, you kind of go, “You know what? He’s throwing spaghetti and it’s sticking on that wall.” [Laughs]

Did you end up having a favorite episode from the season?

SALDAÑA: I had a couple of favorite episodes. I really loved the fact that the McNamara family, which is Joe’s family, just did whatever they could to hold on to each other. I like the fact that between Joe and her husband, there’s a genuine love story there, and we’re not used to seeing that. We’re used to seeing people that serve having awful lives, and they don’t eat well and they don’t live in well environments, and they devote all of their time to their job, and Taylor didn’t want that. So I would say the episodes that we had with our daughter, like there’s Episode 7, there’s Episode 4, I believe that’s the car accident, and I think Episode 7, which is the episode before she leaves, were extremely powerful for us.

What is it like playing someone who is saying or doing things you might strongly disagree with? Is that fun or is it frustrating?

SALDAÑA: It’s conflicting. If I get personally involved, like as I’m putting a character together and I realize that there’s this character just has a whole different set of core values from mine, there is a little bit of conflict but it becomes fun. It becomes fun to safely navigate in someone’s mind that is very different from your own mind, you know?

No, completely. Was there anything that Joe did that you were strongly in disagreement with?

SALDAÑA: Oh god, justified killings. I understand that people that serve know a lot more than we ever will, like us normal citizens ever will, and thanks to them we can safely take our kids to school and, and be okay, we can go to the mall and be okay. We can do a lot of things that are safe because these people are out there doing the real work, but I’m more like Cruz. I just don’t know if I would have the heart, the mind, the chutzpah, whatever you call it. I just don’t know if I would have it.

Zoë Saldaña Shares Taylor Sheridan’s Secrets to Success
Image via 6666 Ranch

How long did it actually take you to make the series? Was it one of those really long shoots?

SALDAÑA: It took like six months because we started in September and then we did it in four different countries. Obviously, you do have to pause for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and I had the world tour of Avatar to do at that time, and I was also promoting from scratch. There was a lot that I did that fall, but then we ended in March. So yeah, it was six months.

That’s one of the reasons, I think, why people respond to Taylor’s shows is that they’re not sound studio shows. They are on location and they feel more like, at times, movies.

SALDAÑA: Yes. It’s good when your a producer, your writer was an actor before. There’s a level of compassion that he has. He identifies with what actors need in order for actors to give the filmmakers a really good performance. Mind you, I’m a sucker, also, for a green screen. I have a very vast imagination. Give me a chair and a close-up and I’ll be okay for a little bit, but nothing beats locations. And yes, it’s hard. I’m a full-time mom, as well. I am a traveling circus. My kids are always with me. So after I come home after 14 hours on set, then I put in the real work at home, and nothing beats it. I would still travel and be on locations if it means that what we’re delivering to our fans and our audiences is something that lingers after they finish an episode, that the experience becomes an experiential content that they’re consuming. That to me is wonderful.

Filming ‘Emilia Perez’ Was the Happiest Zoë Saldaña’s Been

I have to ask you about a different project, and it’s not Avatar. I was reading the synopsis for Emilia Perez, and the synopsis was not what I was expecting. Is that what drew you to that project, and what can you say about it?

SALDAÑA: I hope you get a sense that, with the projects that I choose and I’m chosen for, I do have a very particular view on what I like and what I watch in my free time. Jacques Audiard is a filmmaker that I have watched from the beginning, and France has always been a country whose cinema is exquisite, in my opinion, from the most cavalier movies about relationships to big dramas. And the fact that Jacques came up with this concept from a short story and decided to make it into an opera, and decided to do it in a language that isn’t his own, knowing that his audience is going to be so small, means that it was that important to him and he cares that little about what other people may think. And I think everything about that made me feel so privileged, so honored that he wanted me to play Rita in Emilia Perez. I also got to sing and speak in my native tongue. I got to be working with amazing independent filmmakers. Everything about Emilia Perez, I wanted it so bad, and I worked so hard for it. I literally wrapped Lioness in Morocco, and a week later I was in the studio in Paris recording music for Emilia, and the happiest I’ve ever been. So, I’m really looking forward to watching the movie and to sharing it with everyone.

‘Avatar 4’ and ‘5’ Gets Crazy, Says Star Zoë Saldaña
Image via 20th Century Studios

I’m gonna sneak in a two-parter. How many songs do you sing in the movie, and two, I spoke to Sam Worthington and Jon Landau and James Cameron, and they’ve all teased me about Avatar 3 and how Avatar 4 gets crazy. What can you tease about the upcoming films?

SALDAÑA: It’s going to be amazing. Avatar 3, it’s going to be amazing, and Avatar 4 and 5, it just gets crazy. It’s true. It really does. He’s blown our mind. This is his legacy project. We all thought it was Titanic, and it turned out that Avatar is his legacy, and for us to be a part of something so groundbreaking and trailblazing, it’s like it’s a legacy for us, too. So I’m excited to go back. We go back to work next week, so I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Can you actually answer how many songs you sing in Emilia Perez?

SALDAÑA: I probably sing around six or seven or eight songs.

Oh, wow. This is a huge thing.

SALDAÑA: And I’m dancing, too, so I’m going back to my roots of dance. I worked with an amazing choreographer, Damien Jalet, and I worked with wonderful composers that put everything together, and it was Jacques Audiard, and a great production company. Everything about Emilia Perez was just a fucking roller coaster that I just cannot wait to share.

I really cannot wait to see it. It sounds to me like that could be maybe a project we see at the Toronto Film Festival or Cannes.

SALDAÑA: I would love that. I definitely feel like it is a project that is for the festival circuit, for sure.

Special Ops: Lioness Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

Watch on Paramount