Zoe Saldana Talks 'Live by Night,' Gushes About Ben Affleck

Zoe Saldana is opening up about her role in the upcoming film Live by Night.

In the period crime drama, the 38-year-old actress is involved with individuals who deal in the world of organized crime during the Prohibition Era.

While Zoe has a lot of sci-fi films on her resume – such as Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians of the Galaxy – she says that filming movies set closer to Earth are just as fulfilling, in a different way.

“I get the same thing I get out of doing films set in space,” Zoe told the Los Angeles Daily News regarding Live by Night. “I get to challenge myself, I get to have a director like Ben [Affleck] convince me that I can pull it off, that I have more to contribute to cinema besides what I’ve done so far. I’m continuously growing and I should never stop that evolution in my work.”

“So for me to go back 80, 90 years and play an Afro-Cuban in the 1920s in the South of America was enlightening,” Zoe added. “It was extremely painful and, also, inspiring, I was deeply moved. Ben‘s approach was not sympathetic, it was absolutely empathetic. It was a testament to not just who he is as a filmmaker, but who he is as a person. He grew up outside of Boston with so many cultures around him that he was actually curious about. And now as a filmmaker he can explore that, and he’s showcased all of these cultures in America, just trying to get by, you know? I think it brings a whole different layer to gangster movies.”

Live by Night hits limited theaters on December 25 and opens nationwide on January 13, 2017!

Also pictured inside: Zoe and her twin boys Cy and Bowie (not pictured) and other family members going grocery shopping at Bristol Farms on Wednesday (November 23) in West Hollywood, Calif.