Zoe Saldaña has insisted she is “so grateful” to be a part of successful franchises despite recently admitting she felt “stuck” in them.

The actress revealed in a recent interview with WWD that she has felt “artistically stuck” for the past 10 years because she hasn’t been able to explore many different genres and roles due to her commitments to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar and Star Trek franchises.

Zoe clarified her comments during an interview with Deadline at the Avatar: The Way of Water premiere in Los Angeles on Monday.

“I feel grateful and like the luckiest girl in this town knowing that I was invited to join films with special directors in a special cast. And they resonated with people so much so that we get a chance to come back again and come back another time. If anything, I’ve reaped all the benefits of that, I’ve gained friends, I still have mentors that I call and I lean into,” she insisted.

However, she acknowledged that once she started her family in 2014, it became tough to balance motherhood, her franchise commitments and other roles.

“I think that once I started my family, it just became really hard for me to sustain both worlds and also then cater to this curiosity of playing other different characters or playing ‘earthlings’ you know, but I’m happy in space. I’ve always been happy in space,” she shared, noting that her three main franchise characters live in space.

Zoe then gave a special shout-out to directors James Gunn, James Cameron, J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg for giving her the opportunity to be in their films.

“The fact that they saw me, a little girl from Queens, and I can do those things for them, I can only be so grateful if they call me back again and again and again,” she stated.

Zoe portrayed Nyota Uhura in three Star Trek films between 2009 and 2016 and is currently promoting her second turn as Neytiri in the Avatar franchise, which is expected to continue for three more films. She has played Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2014 and will next be seen as the character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 next year.

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