Zoe Saldaña on Why Working with Her Husband Was Hard

Zoe Saldaña is opening up about the challenges — and breakthroughs — that came from working with her husband, Marco Perego, for the first time on a creative project.

In a conversation with Alicia Keys for the latest cover story in Beyond Noise, the Oscar-winning actress, 47, reflects on what it was like filming the 2019 music video for Keys’ single “Show Me Love,” which was directed by Keys and starred Saldaña alongside Perego.

“Working together on that music video was extremely challenging,” Saldaña admitted. “Because it was the first time I realized his approach to working, and [he realized mine].”

The couple, who married in 2013 and share three sons — Zen, 8, and 10-year-old twins Cy and Bowie — have long supported each other’s careers from behind the scenes. But stepping into a shared creative space came with unexpected friction.

“We’ve figured out so many ways of how to be together,” Saldaña said. “We work together at life. We work together with our family. Now, we work together in art.”

That shift, she explained, exposed new dynamics between them especially when it came to rehearsal.

“He was like, ‘I don’t like the way you’re talking to me when we’re rehearsing…’” Saldaña recalled, laughing. “I would tell him, ‘I keep telling you to pick me up!’”

“You don’t want me to make an excuse. I don’t want you to make an excuse. That’s why we practice. So can you please remember what we f—ing just did?”

Saldaña also opened up about the realities of being an artist and the resilience required to keep going in an industry where rejection is constant.

“I don’t like the word hustle; it has such a connotation,” she said. “But you have to be determined and persistent. To be an artist means that you’re going to get rejected a lot more than you are accepted.”

Looking ahead, the Avatar star said she’s interested in stepping into a new creative space: writing.

“Maybe I want to write a story,” she shared. “I would love to see if I have it in me to create a meaningful story that others will want to be a part of. Because I am a storyteller — I grow from stories. I am saved from within because of stories. And I want to continue telling them.”

Saldaña also expressed excitement over director James Cameron’s interest in developing a documentary about the Avatar films, particularly the behind-the-scenes work that goes into performance capture.

“I’m excited that [James Cameron] is considering a documentary about the making of Avatar,” she said. “It gives us the chance to explain, in a meticulous way, why performance capture is the most empowering form of acting.”

“With the technology that he creates — because Jim’s really a scientist, in addition to being a storyteller — he gives us the ability to own 100 percent of our performance on screen.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters Dec. 19