Zoe Saldaña Reflects on Losing Her Dad as a Child: My Mother 'Wouldn't Get Out of Bed' for Years

Zoe Saldaña is reflecting on how her father's death affected her family.

Saldaña, 46, opened up to Harper's Bazaar for the outlet's February 2025 issue while promoting her Netflix movie musical Emilia Pérez.

Her father Aridio Saldaña died in a car accident in 1988 when she was 9 years old and living in New York City with her family, including sisters Mariel and Cisely.

“When my father passed away, we all went straight into survival mode. We dropped all those little pleasures of life that you do in a day that compel you to calm down," Saldaña told the outlet. "I remember my mom used to wear red lipstick, and she used to walk around in little tight shorts and tight jeans, and she always looked pretty and was always flirting with my dad, and the moment he passed away, she wouldn’t get out of bed for more than a couple of years.”

Saldaña's mother Asalia sent the three sisters to live with family in the Dominican Republic while she remained in N.Y.C.. As Harper's Bazaar reported, Asalia worked multiple jobs throughout Zoe's childhood. While living in the Dominican Republic, Zoe and her sisters recalled they were not allowed to speak English at school.

“I think that unified us even more because not everybody could relate,” Zoe's younger sister Cisely told the outlet of the years following Aridio's death. “You can’t expect them to have the same capacity and to understand what you’re going through.”

Related: Zoe Saldaña Volunteers with Eaton Fire Victims on MLK Day: ‘The Support Is Incredible but We Need More’

Both Zoe and Cisely got into ballet and dance while living in the Dominican Republic. When she returned to live in N.Y.C. as a teenager, she quickly found a home in theatrical productions and credits her ballet teachers with mentoring her in her performances.

“My life has always been saved, over and over again, by people who have taken me in, by guiding me, raising me, and educating me,” she added elsewhere in the piece. 

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Zoe, who won a Golden Globe for best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on Jan. 5, has spoken publicly about her father's death in the past; she opened up about her childhood in a video piece for AOL in 2010 while naming her mother her "hero."

Related: Zoe Saldaña Was 'Thinking About Plan Bs' Before Finding Success with Emilia Pérez: 'Do I Start Planning a Garden and Baking Goods?'

"When we lost him it was hard, it was very very tragic. He was a really good guy," she said at that time. "It was harder for my mom; it took her a couple of years to sort of get out of that spell. It was really hard. You would see it in her face that she just felt defeated, and she would just keep walking one foot in front of the other."

Emilia Pérez is on Netflix now. Saldaña is next nominated for best supporting actress at the Critics Choice Awards on Feb. 7 and at the SAG Awards on Feb. 23.

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