Zoe Saldaña has dominated the award circuit this season. Starring in the Netflix original movie musical, Emilia Pérez, it has led Saldaña to win nearly every statue possible for Best Supporting Actress leading up to the Academy Awards this coming Sunday. Proving herself to be a triple threat with her fluid dance movements as lawyer Rita Mora Castro, Saldaña got to tap into her background of dance and ballet for the part. But, this isn’t the first time she’s got to flex her dancing muscles. Her very first movie role back in 2000 saw her playing a skilled ballerina who does not conform to the quiet, obedient archetype of a professional ballet dancer.
Saldaña’s performance in Center Stage was a revelation as she announced herself as a force to be reckoned with in the 2000s coming-of-age film. Playing a teenage ballerina, she got to make her film debut while also showing off her background in ballet in the dance drama opposite an equally great Amanda Schull. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, Center Stage may be a soapy teen drama, but it was committed to showcasing the craft and discipline of ballet, casting actors with dancing backgrounds as well as professional dancers. Saldaña in Center Stage highlighted the beauty and the bloodshed of ballet, and that it’s just as brutal, if not more so, than any sport.
What Is ‘Center Stage’ About?
In addition to Saldaña, Center Stage marked the film debut of Amanda Schull, who stars in the film as a wide-eyed and innocent 18-year-old ballerina, Jody Sawyer. Jody, along with Eva Rodriguez (Saldaña), are both new students accepted into the elite American Ballet Academy program in New York City. Where Jody has the heart and drive, but not necessarily the talent, Eva has more than enough talent, but her irreverent attitude immediately draws the ire of her teachers. Once there, they must make it through a year of training and perform in a student workshop, which will determine whether they’ll be hired by the company and competing studios nationwide. Jody then begins an affair with the star of the American Ballet Company, Cooper Nielson (Ethan Stiefel), which complicates things when he casts her in his piece for the workshop. As Eva’s attitude also becomes a problem, both she, Jody, and fellow star student Maureen (Susan May Pratt) struggle to rise above the rest.
Zoe Saldaña Broke Out As a Rebel Ballerina In Her Film Debut
Eva is fierce, energetic, and most of all, her own champion, and that’s thanks to Saldaña’s gutsy performance. Despite a career as one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, Center Stage remains one of Saldaña’s most psychically demanding roles, with many scenes requiring her to do ballet on pointe. Saldaña has long credited her success in film, with the physical demands of productions like Avatar and The Guardians of the Galaxy, to her background in dance, especially the strict discipline that ballet requires.
Speaking to W Magazine this past year, she remarked, “I still carry myself as a dancer. I am very militant when I approach experiences and projects and events in my life,” she said. “I am also very hard on myself. Dancers can be really, really hard on themselves. But that self-discipline—I haven’t experienced any sport or art form that teaches you discipline the way ballet does.”
Related
Zoe Saldaña Should’ve Received Her First Oscar Nomination for One of the Biggest Films of All Time
“No one can teach the Academy to See.”
While the film is Jody’s story, Saldaña ultimately becomes the heart of the film, as she refuses to be the obedient, silent ballerina the company has come to expect, under the direction of Peter Gallagher and Donna Murphy as teachers Jonathan Reeves and Juliette Simone, respectively. Both Gallagher and Murphy become parental figures to Eva, and Saldaña shares a particularly moving scene with Murphy’s Juliette, as she remains at the studio late after hours. As Saldaña berets across the studio, her power comes with no words at all, only through her movement and her drive. In another scene, Juliette tells Eva that no matter what happens in the unfair world outside, she’ll always have the Barr and ballet. Saldaña’s face is an open canvas of vulnerability in the movie’s most moving moments, where she decides to seize greatness.
‘Center Stage’ Remains a 2000s Teen Classic and Heartfelt Dance Film
Most of the principal actors cast in the film were trained dancers, or established professionals like Stiefel, which adds to the authenticity of Center Stage. But other than her dancing, Saldaña shines off the stage, as an unbreakable spirit who refuses to conform to the norms of the company that tries to push each dancer into a box. Called “trash” by one cruel, entitled mother, Saldaña is the embodiment of tough skin and perseverance while hurling swears, confidence, and cigarette smoke a mile a minute, which is what makes the character Eva the teen icon that she remains.
Discussing Center Stage‘s upcoming 25th anniversary, Saldaña reflected on how crucial the role was for melding her dance and acting worlds together, “We were shooting it in Lincoln Center, which was this place that I used to go there all the time as a little girl with my grandma…And my gram would go, ‘One day, one day, you’re going to be in there.’ And it all brought it full circle…It was about ballet, which was such a big part of my life. But I needed to sort of transition into other forms of art. And I feel like Center Stage kind of solidified that.”
Eva Rodriguez is the heart of the film, as she defines perseverance and self-worth through ballet, and Saldaña’s commitment to the physically demanding role is inspiring, It’s a brilliant debut that placed Saldaña in vulnerable places on stage, striving for greatness to impress no one but herself, which is what makes the character so lovable. It’s a must-watch early performance of hers that will have you hypnotized as she puts on her pointe shoes, and doesn’t let anyone or anything get in her way.
Center Stage
- Release Date
-
May 12, 2000
- Runtime
-
115 minutes
- Director
-
Nicholas Hytner
- Writers
-
Carol Heikkinen
- Producers
-
Laurence Mark
Source link
