Why Zoe Saldana turned down Taylor Sheridan and 'Special Ops: Lioness,' then changed her mind

It's a minor miracle that Zoe Saldana stars in her first TV series "Special Ops: Lioness."

Saladana, 45, reveals that she originally turned down the plum starring role in the Paramount+ spy series, written with her in mind by executive producer Taylor Sheridan, whose TV "Sheridan-verse" has attracted movie stars like Kevin Costner ("Yellowstone"), Sylvester Stallone ("Tulsa King"), and Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren ("1923").

A year later, Saldana changed her mind. She told Sheridan that she wanted to play the strong-willed "Lioness" CIA's station chief in charge of training a green, undercover recruit (Laysla De Oliveira) to get close to terrorist families for lethal reasons.

"Almost exactly a year to the date, I called (Sheridan) back and said, 'Hey, if this part hasn't been recast, I'd love to talk about it,'" Saldana says in an interview before the SAG-AFTRA strike. "He was so sweet, saying, 'What do you mean, recast it? Didn't I tell you that I wrote that part for you?'"

"Lioness" streams its first two episodes Sunday on Paramount+, and the premiere episode will get a boost on the Paramount Network and CMT (9:15 EDT/PDT). Here's what to know about Saldana's first recurring TV role, and why she almost let it go.

Why Saldana said no to Taylor Sheridan for 'Special Ops: Lioness' role

Saldana's initial rejection came after a full court press by Sheridan, who flew Saldana, her husband Marco and two friends on his private jet to the "Yellowstone" set.

"It was like, 'Let's just hop on your plane and go have dinner with Taylor Sheridan on his set,'" she says. "For my husband and I, this kind of stuff just isn't normal."

After a full ranch tour, the group dined and talked. As the wine flowed, Saldana says she and equally formidable Sheridan locked horns during "really, really passionate" discussions.

"It was just about everything," says Saldana. "There was a lot of wine, a lot of food, a lot of Taylor, and a lot of me. I thought, 'I don't know if I can work with Taylor Sheridan because maybe Taylor and I are the same person.'"

Saldana came up with a workaround: "I vowed to myself that I can totally work with Taylor. I just won't have wine with Taylor," Saldana says. (She's joking, sort of, about the wine part.) But the bigger hurdle was the responsibility of her central character at the center of an eight-episode season.

"It scared me that he had written this with me in mind. I got too spooked, " says Saldana, who moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic as a child. "Taylor writes a lot of dialogue for his characters, these long speeches. I'm dyslexic (and) English is not my first language. It was like, 'What am I doing?'"

"It took me a year to accept the challenge," she adds.

What is 'Special Ops: Lioness' about and who stars in it?

Saldana stars alongside Nicole Kidman, who plays Joe's CIA boss, and model-turned-actress De Olivera as a recruit to the top-secret program. "Lioness" brings a needed jolt of female lead roles to Sheridan's universe, which has been criticized for being too male-dominated.

A fan of his work, Saldana says Sheridan has been creating power female roles since writing Emily Blunt's riveting FBI character in the 2015 drug war thriller "Sicario."

"He has a natural way of writing women, striking female characters that are really deep," says Saldana. "But here he doubles down. People will be able to calm down about that. In my mind, he always had that in him."

"Lioness" was Inspired by a real military program that had female Marines assigned to search and gather intelligence from Iraqi and Afghanistan women during the post-9/11 conflicts. But the show dramatizes the action. Marine Cruz (De Oliveira) is recruited to get close to the daughter of a notorious terrorist in order to assassinate him before his next major attack.

It's a grueling action role for the relative newcomer De Oliveira, 31, who's physically unrecognizable from her role in Netflix's 2020 horror drama "Locke and Key."

"Laysla went through so much on this every single day," says Saldana. "She's a freak of nature and an extraordinary actor, giving a taste of what's to come in her career."

Joe works with her Washington higher-ups, including director Kaitlyn Meade, played by fellow executive producer Kidman.

"Nicole and I talked twice a day," says Saldana of the collaboration. "Every episode that we're watching, we're discussing and going back to the team with our notes."

What is working with Taylor Sheridan like?

While Sheridan has a Hollywood reputation for working solo, Saldana insists he's "extremely collaborative." And there hasn't been a repeat of their dinner theatrics.

"Believe it or not, that cowboy knows how to play well with others," says Saldana. "I'm humbled by the amount of consideration I receive."

So much so that Saldana has flown well past her initial hesitation. She is already eyeing a second "Lioness" season, which has not been formally greenlighted, in which Joe would see more combat action on the ground with fellow Marines, played by a cast that includes LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan and Jill Wagner.

"Taylor has assured me that Joe is definitely going to get down and dirty next season," says the surprised Saldana. "I never thought I'd say this because I didn't want to do TV. But now it's like, how could I not do TV when this is what we're doing? It's just amazing."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Special Ops: Lioness': How Zoe Saldana was wooed by Taylor Sheridan