Netflix’s Mesoamerican animated series Maya and the Three is now streaming and features a star-studded cast that includes Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Allen Maldonado, Stephanie Beatriz, and Gabriel Iglesias.
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Maya and the Three star Zoe Saldaña about what drew her to the series, getting to see her roots represented on screen, and more.
Tyler Treese: I really loved the show and I thought it was so smart with how Maya defies gender expectations. She’s put in this role where people go, “Oh, you can’t be a warrior.” She does exactly that. How rewarding was it getting to be this character that’s gonna be a positive role model for kids and break the status quo?
Zoe Saldaña: I feel like breaking the status quo has been my entire career [laughs]. These are characters that I just naturally I am inclined to always be interpreting. Maybe because I do share a commonness with a little girl like Maya, where you sort of go, “Oh, okay. I don’t wanna be this kind of princess. I wanna be this warrior, and I wanna help you. And what are you doing? Can you explain this to me? Can you walk me through this? Well, why not?!”
So all of these things that Jorge Gutierrez, our creator, was able to compose as Maya are just relatable traits that I love and I see because I’m one of three girls. I grew up in a family of matriarchs. Like this is what I see, but it’s also what we need. We need a lot of this visibility, a lot of this representation in order for us to feel seen and heard and supported and celebrated and encouraged to continue following our own voices and our own paths.
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You’ve done quite a bit of voice acting at this point. What do you find most exciting about getting to do a role in the booth rather than a live-action role.
I get to go to the studio with my PJs [laughs]. That’s not true. I mean, that is true actually. The genres that I’m most attracted to are pretty obvious. It’s science fiction and action, but it’s also animation. I love collaborating with these kinds of creatives. You know, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jorge Gutierrez, James Gunn, J.J. Abrams. It’s just, there’s a likeness that I recognize as my own and I feel seen and heard by them. I also feel encouraged to collaborate and to contribute. I do feel a part of the process and a part of the journey and that is fantastic.
This story is beautiful because I do feel that Maya is this wholesome kind of woman that is tough. That is a little sassy, but she’s also insecure. She’s filled with self-doubt, but she knows who she is and she doesn’t want to make her parents upset, but she wants to be who she wants to be. Those are all relatable themes for many, many women that are always encouraged to conform into these roles that they no longer fit into. To me, the icing on the cake is Maya being inspired by Mesoamerican culture, mythology, and a little bit of Caribbean culture influence, I get to see my, my heritage dressed all over this animation and that feels amazing.
There are so many interesting character dynamics throughout the series. I really loved the interactions between Maya and Diego Luna’s character. Can you just discuss those two being on different sides, but still having those similarities?
Yeah, they have so many things in common, primarily they’re being forced by their parents to fit in a character in a role that they are truly not made for. Though they love their parents and they want to please their parents, they can’t deny being pulled into who they truly are meant to be. So that attraction is what brings them together.
I love being a preacher about not judging books by their cover, like somebody that may seem too strong or too abrupt at first impression, may be somebody that is very fragile and shy and battling a lot of inner demons that we have no idea about. So giving people the benefit of the doubt over and over again gives people a lot of people, the opportunity to finally reveal who they truly are, and that is beautiful, right? Then you become like a safe haven for them. So I feel like Maya and Zatz become each other’s safe haven.
