By World Licence 
After winning her first Golden Globe for her performance in “Emilia Perez,” Zoe Saldaña is expressing gratitude to the filmmakers who have believed in her throughout her 25-year career.
In the press room after the awards ceremony, Saldaña shared that she heard from Avatar director James Cameron after her big win. “I was sitting in the audience and I got a message from James Cameron, who is somewhere in New Zealand right now, editing Avatar: Fire and Ash. And after all these years, he believes in me. So that fuels my desire to continue to grow as an artist.”
Cameron praised the actress in an interview for Variety’s October cover story: “I’ve worked with Oscar winners, and Zoe is nothing short of that,” he said. “But since in my film she’s playing a ‘CGI character’, it doesn’t count in a way, which makes no sense to me. She can go from regal to completely feral in two nanoseconds. The woman is fierce. She’s a lioness.”
Saldaña has long been a box-office star, leading the top three highest-grossing films of all time: 2009’s “Avatar” and its 2022 sequel “Waterfall,” which sit first and third, respectively, with 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” sandwiched in between. This year, however, the former “Guardians of the Galaxy” actress has garnered a level of critical acclaim and awards recognition she’s never experienced before in her career.
“What I feel is joy, because I have a sense of presence. I’ve been in this business for 25 years,” she said. “I’ve always had a job. I’ve always had good human beings, incredible and undeniably talented filmmakers who believe in me, bet on me and constantly trust me. That recognition is paramount to my survival as an artist. I’m happy. I’m 46. A few years ago, I asked myself at one point, ‘Do I go to a farm and start planting a garden?’”
But the truth is that I am an artist at heart and I need to create every day. I just don’t know what I would do.”
Saldaña also took the opportunity to salute Emilia Perez’s director, Jacques Audiard, adding: “I am indebted to filmmakers like Jacques Audiard who, after conversations, auditions and promises that I could do something, decided to bet on me. And it worked.”