Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Money, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
When it comes to Hollywood A-listers, there are few more bankable Zoe Saldana, who has starred in 30 percent of the top ten grossing movies of all time.
Right now the 44-year-old star is wrapped up with the upcoming release of the long-awaited Avatar sequel, The Way of Water.
James Cameron's fantasy epic sees Saldana reprise her role as Neytiri alongside Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, and this time their characters have a whole host of new challenges to contend with.
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The first Avatar, which dropped in 2009, is still the biggest earner the world has ever seen, drawing in a whopping $2.9 billion across its lifetime.
But this isn't the only mega-franchise Saldana's involved in.
She's also a staple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Guardians of the Galaxy movies where she portrays the deadly assassin Gamora.
As a result of this work, the actor is also in two other movies that make the top ten list of highest grossing movies.
That includes Avengers: Endgame, which sits comfortably in second place with a lifetime gross of $2.7 billion.
In fifth place is Avengers: Infinity War, also featuring Gamora, which earned a sizeable $2 billion.
Alongside her work in big budget franchises, Saldana somehow finds time to get involved in other projects such as the Netflix show From Scratch and the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick The Adam Project.
Oh, and she also balances all of this with family time with her husband, artist Marco Perego Saldana, and their three kids.
Although working in the world of blockbusters has contributed to her reported $35 million net worth, she recently opened up about feeling somewhat 'stuck' in this world.
Speaking to Women's Wear Daily, she explained: "I feel that for the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been just stuck. I felt stuck doing these franchises.
"I’m very grateful for the opportunities that they provided, from collaborating with amazing directors and getting to meet cast members that I consider friends and getting to play a role that fans, especially children, love.
"But it also meant that I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles."
That being said, she's been able to branch out into new roles of late, including with the aforementioned series From Scratch.
Elsewhere in the interview, Saldana discussed how she maintains a work/life balance.
"After Avatar, when you’re young and all of the time you have, the opportunity to travel and to go to lavish dinners and wear beautiful outfits and the nightlife became very attractive," she said.
“It was a lot of working hard and a lot of [playing] hard that sometimes got in the way of me feeling fully, fully proud of the work I was doing – because I did the work.
"Now that I’m a little older and I would like to consider myself a little wiser, it’s going back to that [feeling] of having those healthy boundaries for myself of, 'Go to bed early, really work. I know you’re tired. I know you really want to go out and go with your kids and just say, f**k my rehearsal and f**k my practice and f**k this session.'
"But I don't. I still manage to focus on family life and also focus on my work. And I feel good."
If you'd like to see Saldana's latest work, Avatar: The Way of Water drops in cinemas on December 16.
