{"id":613468,"date":"2026-07-31T13:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/613468\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:28:28","slug":"zoe-saldana-praises-lioness-for-gender-fluid-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/613468\/","title":{"rendered":"Zo\u00eb Salda\u00f1a praises Lioness for \u2018gender-fluid\u2019 characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zoe\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Zo\u00eb Salda\u00f1a opens up about Lioness\u2019 \u201cgender-fluid\u201d characters. (John Nacion\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Ahead of the season three premiere of Lioness, Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/a> star Zo\u00eb Salda\u00f1a<\/a> raved about the show\u2019s writer penning \u201cgender-fluid\u201d characters.<\/p>\n

Thanks for registering! You can update your email subscriptions at any time in the
\n My profile<\/a> section of your account.\n <\/p>\n

The Paramount+ spy thriller follows Joe (Salda\u00f1a), a soldier who attempts to balance her personal and professional lives while serving as the tip of the CIA\u2019s spear in the war on terror. Salda\u00f1a\u2019s character is a CIA senior case officer in charge of the Lioness program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actor is also a vocal LGBTQ+ ally who has spoken about her experiences with sexual fluidity<\/a>, even stating \u201cgirls are such better kissers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The show is helmed by Yellowstone\u2019s Taylor Sheridan, who serves as a creator, showrunner and also writer on Lioness. Additionally, Salda\u00f1a is joined on the show by The Shawshank Redemption\u2019s Morgan Freeman, The Night Agent\u2019s Genesis Rodriguez and Babygirl\u2019s Nicole Kidman.<\/p>\n

At the season premiere in New York City, Salda\u00f1a told People<\/a>: \u201cI do believe that Joe [McNamara] could\u2019ve been a man. We\u2019ve seen various stories of men like Joe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Kaitlyn [Meade] could\u2019ve been a man, the same way [Byron] Westfield could\u2019ve been a woman, Kyle [McManus] could\u2019ve been a woman. These are incredible, complex individuals [and] any actor who challenges themselves can rise to that occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It kind of defies gender and race\u2019<\/p>\n

\"LionessZo\u00eb Salda\u00f1a and Nicole Kidman in Lioness. (Paramount+)<\/p>\n

Salda\u00f1a highlighted that the ability to pen layered and fluid characters is \u201cwhat makes a really good writer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you write something so incredible that it kind of defies gender and race, and it\u2019s just about the merit of that human being, I feel like you give yourself the opportunity of a wider range of actors that can come in and sort of vie for that part,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a great deal of respect for men that really know how to write women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to say that, after playing one of his female characters for three seasons, I\u2019m incredibly honoured that he wrote Joe as a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season three of Lioness, according to the synopsis, sees Joe confronting \u201cenemies operating in the shadows, leaving her to reckon with a war that now reaches into every part of her life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lioness has featured LGBTQ+ representation throughout its previous seasons. In Season 1, operative Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira) and Aaliyah (Stephanie Nur), the daughter of a suspect, formed an intimate bond while on an undercover mission.<\/p>\n

Season three of Lioness premieres on August 2 on Paramount+.<\/p>\n

Share your thoughts!<\/strong>\u00a0Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zo\u00eb Salda\u00f1a opens up about Lioness\u2019 \u201cgender-fluid\u201d characters. (John Nacion\/Getty) Ahead of the season three premiere of Lioness,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,258919,19,17,128,73461],"class_list":["post-613468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-gender-fluid","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv","tag-zoe-saldana"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117014830199759483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}