Zoe Saldana hopes her ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ is a spiritual successor to ‘Sicario’
Hollywood actress Zoe Saldana, who plays Joe, the leader of a female-focused covert CIA organisation in spy thriller series ‘Special Ops: Lioness’, hopes it is a spiritual successor to the hit 2015 spy thriller film ‘Sicario’ written by Taylor Sheridan.
Sheridan is the creator of ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ television series, which premiered on Sunday.
In an interview with ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, Saldana was asked if she felt the spy thriller series is a spiritual successor to ‘Sicario’, which starred Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin.
She said, “I hope so. I love ‘Sicario’. I thought ‘Sicario’ was a very interesting movie where normal people are trying to do the right thing in very bad ways, and so in a way, that felt very similar. My belief, based on the little that I know from Taylor, is that he does know, and he surrounds himself with people who have either served in militaries or been a part of programs such as the Lioness program, as well as retired Navy SEALS and CIA people.”
“And I do know that he has a great deal of admiration for the real work that gets done when we’re all sleeping, so he takes it upon himself to highlight this world,” she added.
Asked about her character Joe, who is a CIA Special Activities operative who runs the Lioness program on the ground and handles female operatives who go undercover to get close to the wives, girlfriends and daughters of terrorists, Saldana says: “I think I needed to have her intentions very clear in my mind. For me, she’s a straight shooter. She’s clean. There’s nothing dirty about what Joe does. If Joe goes off the grid, it’s because she’s going to do the right thing and save people. She’s incredibly responsible. So that needed to be very clear because you can play poker face for the sake of just looking mysterious and unreadable, or you can know why you’re being reserved.”
‘Sicario’ is the film that reinvented Sheridan as a writer to be reckoned with, and paved the way for his mega-popular ‘Yellowstone’ TV franchise.