Zoe Saldaña tearfully accepted the award for Best Supporting Actress in Any Motion Picture at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Onstage at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, the star of Emilia Perez opened up her speech with a warning and the admission: “I know I don’t have much time. And I have dyslexia, so I tend to forget, when I’m really anxious and I’m filled with adrenaline.”
The reference to the learning disorder was brief, but it wasn’t the first time that Saldaña has spoken of it. She has told Variety that for a while, she was scared to take on certain jobs because of it. “The challenges that I’ve had, they have to do with my learning abilities,” she told the publication. “I have dyslexia and anxiety, which prevented me from really going after roles — a whole lot of roles — that I know I could have done.”
She felt more comfortable sticking to films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers and Star Trek and all of their sequels, so as not to put herself in a situation where her dyslexia would be tested. Joining the cast of Special Ops: Lioness, the Paramount+ show in which she plays alongside Nicole Kidman, was particularly scary for her, because she anticipated it would involve big monologues. Saldaña said that she requested her scripts weeks in advance and hired a line reader to work with her daily when she accepted the role.
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“I would memorize, memorize, memorize, and by the time that scene would come, it was an extension of who I was — like ballet,” she said. “The worst thing that [the writer Taylor Sheridan] can do is to change a scene last minute or add dialogue. That’s when I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, that’s dyslexia 2.0’ — that will be the next step.”
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disability that disrupts how the brain processes written language, according to Cleveland Clinic, and, as the most common learning disability in the world, represents between 80% and 90% of all learning disabilities. It makes reading and language-related tasks like writing, spelling, memorizing words and forming sentences difficult.
There are various ways that dyslexia can present, and it often emerges during childhood. Diagnosis requires careful evaluation and testing by a professional. However, experts estimate that although it affects up to 20% of people worldwide, only a fraction of them receive a proper diagnosis.
Working with dyslexia
There isn’t a cure for dyslexia, but educational interventions can make living with it easier. Saldaña’s one-on-one assistance learning scripts, for example, helps her to overcome reading-related challenges. Finding the right support is especially important for children of school age, whom the star addressed in a 2021 PSA for Child Mind Institute, where she spoke to the difficulty she experienced in her own education because of dyslexia and ADHD.
Why Zoe’s experience is important
Saldaña’s message about living with dyslexia and learning disorders offers hope. Fans agree that despite all the challenges, she hopes to encourage others not to be deterred from achieving their dreams.
“[I’m] acknowledging that I’m scared, that I don’t want to stop growing, that I have so much more to learn. And that I want to work with many more filmmakers and do many more roles, different than the ones that I’ve done before,” she told Variety. “There’s something that comes with maturity — which is wisdom. And wisdom sometimes means just being honest with yourself.”
