It would be hard to find an actress working today who could be considered more successful than Zoe Saldaña. After appearances in Star Trek, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and, perhaps most importantly, James Cameron's Avatar films, she has established herself as both a powerful performer and a person consistently associated with financial success at the highest level. In short? She is an actress who delivers the goods both on screen and at the box office. But for Saldaña, frustration remains with her work in the sci-fi genre, particularly Avatar.

In a recent profile piece on IndependentSaldaña discussed her work in the highly acclaimed "Emilia Perez," which arrived on Netflix in November. Saldaña is in the awards season conversation for her work in the film, and while that's certainly a good thing, the actress also reflected a bit on being overlooked for her performance in 2009's Avatar and its 2022 sequel , "Avatar: Road to Water." In her mind, the industry is clinging to old ideas in not recognizing motion capture performance compared to traditional camera performance. Here's what she had to say about it:

"Old habits die hard, and when you have old enterprises, it's really hard to drive change." And I understand that, so I'm not bitter about it, but it's pretty desperate when you're giving 120 percent of yourself to something. I mean, not winning is fine, not being nominated is fine, but when you get overlooked and then downplayed and completely ignored...”

Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time (twice)with more than $2.9 billion to date. Only "Avengers: Endgame" ($2.79 billion) comes very close to that amount. It was also nominated for several Oscars in its time, including Best Picture, but mostly in the technical categories. Actors were excluded.

There has been a bit of controversy surrounding motion capture in the industry for several decades. Andy Serkis completely changed the game with his performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Serkis would later take things to another level with his performance as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes films, both performances failed to garner any Academy Award nominations, but both films earned awards for their visual effects.

Does it take a lot of talented technicians to fully bring those performances to life? Yes. But there's a huge difference between the lifeless creation of CGI and what Saldaña and others have done in Avatar or other blockbusters that depend on motion-capture performances. "I know the difference between that and what we did," Saldaña added in the interview.

For my money, Saldaña and the other actors are not given the duty for these kinds of performances. I would argue that she also didn't get the credit she deserved her role as Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.. Fortunately, the industry is changing in some ways. Angela Bassett won Best Supporting Actress for her work in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so at least the comics aren't being overlooked when it's warranted. Saldaña, speaking further, seems to have come to terms with the lack of critical appreciation for her work as Neytiri:

"At some point you have to ask yourself: Why am I doing what I'm doing? Is it so others can give me approval? Or because I don't want to do anything else?

Who knows? Maybe by the time Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters next yearattitudes will change a bit. For now, Saldaña will just have to settle for being in the three highest-grossing films of all time, and a few in the top 20.