Emilia Pérez is not the first time Zoe Saldaña has danced on screen, and her ballet performance in Center Stage showcased her musical talents well before the Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez dominated the pop culture news cycle for good and bad reasons. Zoe Saldaña has had such an interesting career.

I mean, can you think of anyone who has had a similar trajectory as her? This is an actress who began her career in 2000 and almost immediately got a role in a major blockbuster franchise with Pirates of the Caribbean​​​​​.

Since then, she’s had major roles in three other tentpole franchises in Avatar, the MCU, and Star Trek. All the while, she’s made time for smaller films, such as her debut in Center Stage as Eve Rodríguez, a smart-aleck dancer, and her 2024 musical crime film Emilia Pérez, for which she won an Oscar in 2025.

You can’t talk about Emilia Pérez without mentioning the controversies, but that’s not what I want to discuss. I want to discuss how Karla Sofía Gascón-issues or not, it’s Center Stage that showcases Saldaña’s dancing talents best and is the better film.

Zoe Saldaña Showed What She Was Capable Of In Center Stage

Saldaña Is A Double Threat In The Film, Acting And Dancing

Center Stage is a 2000 teen drama from director Nicholas Hytner, a prolific theater director whose other films include The Madness of King George and The Crucible.

The film centers on the American Ballet Academy, a fictional, prestigious dance school that has recently taken on 12 young dancers, from which six will be picked to join the American Ballet Company.

Zoe Saldaña co-stars as Eve Rodríguez, a sharp-tongued dancer with a lot of confidence who is not afraid to stand up for herself. Naturally talented, Eva’s abrasive personality holds her back.

Over the course of the year, the dancers fight, despair, and finally triumph on their way to joining the prestigious company. Rodríguez learns to take advice and suggestions, and her marked improvement in attitude and ability is satisfying to watch and results in her getting a spot in the Company.

This was Saldaña’s movie debut, and from the jump, it was obvious that she was going to be a star. Before this, her only role was a guest spot in an episode of Law & Order. Center Stage was her chance to impress, and she does so.

Saldaña made it clear she was a dual-threat actress in the film. Her ballet dancing is remarkably impressive. Ballet is an incredibly difficult style of dance to master, and it would have been so easy for Saldaña to make Rodríguez look like an amateur.

Instead, she’s controlled, athletic, and graceful. It’s this athletic ability that has served Saldaña well in the many action movies she has been a part of.

She has fantastic control of her body, and her ability to act believably while performing is at a noticeably higher level than the other young actors in Center Stage.

It’s her acting that stands out more than anything, and from Saldaña’s first appearance, she makes an impression.

Channeling the type of arrogant teen who has gotten by on talent alone for so long that they don’t know what to do when they’re critiqued, she naturally transforms from a selfish performer to a teammate worthy of being in the company.

The arc feels authentic thanks to the way Saldaña softens Rodríguez in that time. It’s an impressive debut performance and a sign that big things would come for Saldaña.

Ballet Was Zoe Saldaña’s First Passion

Saldaña Began Dancing While Living In The Dominican Republic

While Saldaña clearly worked hard on her ballet for the film, she had a leg up on the part because she had been dancing ballet since she was nine years old (via ZoeSaldana). Saldaña said in an interview (via VanityFair),

“Ballet has always been my first passion, but I simply didn’t have the feet, and I have way too much pride and ambition to just be in the corps.”

Not that I know a single thing about ballet, but from my wildly uninformed viewpoint, Saldaña seems to have everything you need to be a good ballet dancer. But I guess I’ll defer to her in that regard.

I do totally believe that she would be unwilling to be anything but the lead in the corps, though. Saldaña seems like one of the most ambitious actors currently working.

She’s appeared in at least one movie every single year she’s been working, and in only nine of those years has she appeared in just one film. She has drive.

Saldaña does attribute her movie career to ballet, though. It was Center Stage that thrust her into acting, and she probably would not have gotten the role without her history in ballet. She said (via People),

“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.”

After spending so much time in the ballet, Saldaña realized that it was never going to be her career. Center Stage was the perfect way for her to exit that era of her life and move on to the next.

A lot of people stumble when they try to go from one art industry to the next, even between television and movies. It’s a testament to Saldaña’s talent and commitment that she made the jump from dancing to acting so cleanly.

Center Stage Is A Better Movie Than Emilia Pérez

Emilia Pérez Is Not As Joyfully Staged And Performed As Center Stage

With Zoe Saldaña dancing and acting in both, and because one serves as the start of her career and the other is a major milestone, it’s easy to compare Center Stage and Emilia Pérez, but for my money, Center Stage is the far better film.

Both have their merits, but I think that Emilia Pérez has been pushed forward as an award-worthy film because of the cultural conversation around it rather than the movie itself.

Honestly, the conversation, particularly regarding Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweeting scandal, is fascinating, but the movie simply isn’t.

It’s certainly a wild ride, but it’s also an unwieldy one. We jump from one musical number to the next, and at the end of it all, we don’t really go anywhere. Center Stage, on the other hand, is a much tighter film with a clear story that’s easy to grab onto.

What’s more, the dance sequences in Center Stage are excellent, and when put up against Emilia Pérez, the 2024 musical doesn’t touch them. There’s excitement and athleticism in Center Stage that’s sorely missing in Emilia Pérez​​​​​​.

Zoe Saldaña Still Deserved Her Oscar Win For Emilia Pérez

This Was Saldaña’s First Academy Award Nomination And Win

Though Emilia Pérez is not all it’s cracked up to be, Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro is. She’s incredible and duly deserving of her Academy Award. She’s a true triple threat in the film, acting, singing, and dancing; performing each aspect needed with skill and aplomb.

It’s a remarkable performance. It’s not that she was bad as Gamora or Neytiri, but those roles don’t give Saldaña the best opportunity to show off her screen presence. The special effects take up the screen in those movies, not the actors, or at least not in the case of Saldaña’s characters.

Emilia Pérez is a little frustrating in that regard. Is this the Zoe Saldaña we could have been watching had she not been covered head to toe in makeup for the last decade and a half?

This is a true movie star performance and one that she’ll be remembered for, for a long time. Saldaña is easily the best part of Emilia Pérez.

While Zoe Saldaña doesn’t get to perform any ballet in Emilia Pérez like she does in Center Stage, maybe this new era of her career will inspire her to perform her first passion in film once again.