- - Why Motherhood Was Zoe Saldaña's Biggest Asset—and Challenge—in Returning to Her “Avatar” Character (Exclusive)

Jack SmartJanuary 1, 2026 at 4:00 AM

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Zoe Saldana at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' on Dec. 1 -

Zoe Saldaña tells PEOPLE about her work returning to the Avatar franchise in new installment Fire and Ash

The mom of three says, “I don't think I would've been able to play Neytiri as a mother had I not become a mother myself”

Her own experience as a parent informed both Neytiri’s grief and growth, says the Oscar winner

The Avatar movies have changed Zoe Saldaña’s life forever — and her life has influenced them too.

In Avatar: Fire and Ash, James Cameron’s third installment in the hit sci-fi franchise, Saldaña returns as Neytiri: Pandora-dwelling Na’vi warrior, wife to Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully and, most importantly, mother to several children.

Being a mom off-screen to sons Cy, Bowie and Zen “really did give me a lot of information in a very unconscious way,” Saldaña, 47, tells PEOPLE. “I don't think I would've been able to play Neytiri as a mother had I not become a mother myself.”

Saldaña shares her kids with Marco Perego, her husband since 2013. Since parenthood came between 2009’s Avatar and the 2022 sequel The Way of Water — as it did with Worthington, 49, who also has three sons — Saldaña recalls with a laugh that Cameron, 71, jokes the duo had kids to inform their work onscreen.

“He's been saying during interviews that 'Sam and Zoe are so dedicated to Jake and Neytiri that they even went off and got married and had kids just so they can give great performances.' ”

Courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri in 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'

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Filmed back to back, The Way of Water and Fire and Ash chart an emotional journey for Jake and Neytiri, who in the former installment suffered the death of their eldest son Neteyam (played by Jamie Flatters).

Saldaña’s biggest challenge during filming, she says, was embodying Neytiri’s “unbearable” loss.

“The saying goes that when a mother buries a child, half of her, at least, is buried with that child — regardless of her having living children to take care of,” the Oscar winner says. “And I wanted to physicalize that because it's a sensorial experience, the experience of loss. It's not something you can verbalize. It's so intense and unimaginable.”

Zoe Saldana/Instagram

Zoe Saldaña and family via Instagram

But Neytiri is “able to evolve and grow and really begin to see again” throughout Fire and Ash, says Saldaña, thanks to her kids: Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and the adopted Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

“Neytiri could very well be an immigrant mother, a victim of war, and in coming to this family with so much PTSD and fears and stigmas, she's unable to bend, inflexible,” says the actress. It’s “the love of her children, their guidance,” and their “individualizing” that teaches her.

That’s true in real life, of course. Cy, Bowie and Zen are “here to raise me as much as I'm there to raise them,” says Saldaña with a smile. “They're very proud of me. They're also very hard on me, which is good because I'm proud of them and I'm also hard on them. But that's what love is, right?”

Avatar: Fire and Ash, also starring Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Bailey Bass, David Thewlis and Kate Winslet, is in theaters now.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”