Zoe Saldaña’s Ideal Party Menu Includes Homemade Pizza and a Vodka Spritz

It’s difficult to upstage Zoe Saldaña these days. The in-demand actress and ELLE Women in Hollywood honoree recently won her first Academy Award, nabbing the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her triple-threat performance in the musical-drama Emilia Pérez. She’s starring in Pixar’s highly anticipated animated film, Elio, and the third installment of the Avatar series, which will finally hit theaters this December. But when I meet Saldaña on the banks of Lake Como in Italy to get a sneak peek of her new Grey Goose campaign, the landscape is trying its hardest to steal the show.

“Look at this set,” Saldaña exclaims from video village, the surrounding mountain range and cloud-streaked cerulean sky mirrored in the rippling waters behind her. Although Saldaña’s husband is Italian and originally from Lake Garda, this is her first visit to Lake Como. (“Even Italians adore Como,” she says.) She’s stationed here for a few days as the Grey Goose team takes over the Grand Hotel Victoria, transforming the property, including the dreamy lakeside beach club, into the fictional Grey Goose Hôtel for a series of new shorts she is starring in. Tapping into the brand’s French ethos, the campaign is intended to encourage people to live in the moment and savor life’s small pleasures.

Saldaña with her spritz

Saldaña even revealed the recipe for her favorite cocktail, playfully named the Le Zoé Spritz—a refreshing blend of vodka, rosé, sparkling water, strawberry juice, fresh lemon juice, and a few fun garnishes. “Creatively putting a cocktail together, and enjoying that cocktail, is an experience that allows me to be more present,” Saldaña says, adding that summer is an ideal time for a spritz. As for what she’d serve alongside it? “I am very much a fan of antipasti—cheese and salamis, like a charcuterie.”

If it sounds like a party, well, Saldaña has a lot to celebrate these days. Below, shared more of her hosting tips, what audiences can expect from the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, and how women in Hollywood are inspiring her to ask, “What if I’m just getting started?”

This new campaign is all about living in the moment. Working in Hollywood, have you developed any habits or tools to stay present and centered?

I’m starting to. I’m trying really, really hard. It’s difficult when you are part of a business where everything is always happening. It’s [a lot of] hurry up and wait. So you’re constantly being compelled to be in the then and not really in the now. Then, when you become a parent, you’re always planning for the future. I have to say that my children are such present beings, and they are really inspiring my husband and I, and even my folks, to be more present. That means sometimes dropping everything and just sitting down and enjoying a beautiful view, no matter where you are—enjoying company and a nice beverage. I’m taking great pleasure in allowing myself to steal moments like that.

Belated congrats on your Oscar win! Do you feel like you’ve been able to be present in this season of your life, or does it all feel quite surreal?

A little bit of both. I feel like it very much runs parallel with my life in terms of how I continue to evolve, and challenge myself, and grow. So, in that sense, it’s been very real. I’ve been very present with it. And it is surreal. I am from Jackson Heights, Queens. Though I’ve always been exceptionally loved by an amazing family who’ve done everything for us, I’m just like, “How do I get from there to here?” Sometimes it is surreal.

Is there anything about post-Oscars life that you didn’t expect?

I didn’t expect it, but I’ve been witnessing it with so many women that I truly admire—the longevity, the empowerment, [how] women are taking back [control] over their youth, how we get to say when we’re done. I’m 46, so to be able to still work and [ignore the timeline] that everybody has put on me as a woman—like, Oh, now you’re 46, you have three kids, you can’t do this, and you can’t do that. I’ve taken inspiration from women like Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis. Nicole Kidman, I admire her. Demi Moore is one of my giants, how she has managed to defy the gravities that were always set for her. “You’re too pretty.” “You’re [a] popcorn [actress].” “You’re too sexy.” Every trope, she just broke, broke, broke, broke, broke. My giants continue to inspire me—that, at this age, with everything that I’ve done in my life, I can still say, “Well, what if I’m just getting started?” That’s beautiful, and I would love to be a part [of that] legacy of women.

When you’re having people over, are you the type of person who makes cocktails the night before, or are you throwing things together as guests walk in?

More like that. I’m getting things together as people are walking in, but the day before, I will go to the store and buy a lot of items. That way people can assemble their favorite cocktails. I love that.

Do you have a go-to tip for creating the best party atmosphere?

I have to say, my husband and I have mastered the pizza party. You make the best dough. You buy the best cheese, and you make the sauce from scratch, and you put everything out there, and you make it like a rotating station where people make their pizza. We really take pleasure in putting that all together.

How do you and your husband incorporate each other’s cultures into celebrating and hosting?

Oh my God, that’s the only thing we know how to do. I grew up in a household of immigrant parents and elders, and I married an immigrant. So when we plan to have family and friends over, there’s always a question: Are we going to do Italian, or is it going to be Dominican? Because it can’t be both. My husband believes that it can be both. I’m like, “We can’t.” Everything has to be cohesive. Don’t be putting some rice and beans with the cioppino. You can’t do that. Also because [the food you serve] dictates the kind of cocktails you’re going to arrange. I can’t have a mojito with a carbonara. I just can’t do it. But if we’re doing carne asada with some guacamole, and some beans and rice, then okay, bring in your mojito.

Let’s talk about your upcoming projects. Avatar: Fire and Ash is coming out this year, as well as Elio, where you play the titular character’s aunt, who’s taking care of him after his parents pass away. It seems like both films are, in some way, about processing grief and loss.

Lately in my life—outside of [some of] my commitments with these big, big amazing movies that I’ve been a part of—my journey as a human being and making art, it is about the reconciliation of grief. I did [the TV series] From Scratch because of it. I’m always trying to interpret, through different lens, what grief can mean and how it can impact the lives of people, and also celebrate how they manage loss.

Avatar put me and Sam Worthington in a position to imagine the unimaginable by being Jake and Neytiri [who lose their son in Avatar: The Way of Water]. I think even Jim [director James Cameron] wasn’t ready to see that, and he knew that was part of their journey because of the saga around this world he’s creating, and the threats around this world. That deep, unimaginable sense of loss was probably something that these characters needed to experience. And I’m proud of him for doing it. I would’ve done it differently [laughs], because I’m a parent. But it just makes this world of Avatar a lot more meaningful. So Fire and Ash is definitely a continuation, but a process for the Sullys, and it’s just so beautiful. Out of the five-episode saga, it is the exact middle for them. I do believe that Fire and Ash is going to be the biggest turning point in this journey for these two individuals and this world.

The film has been called “heart-wrenching.” Can you confirm or deny?

Yes. Because also, in the making of the third one, we lost [Avatar producer] Jon Landau. Experiencing loss, it’s just hard. Now more than ever, Avatar [has become] a much more meaningful [series], a story for all of us. So, we’re very proud of it. I feel like every time I talk to Jim about it—because Jim was such a wonderful person throughout the whole campaign of Emilia Pérez, whether they were good moments or challenging moments, he was always calling me. Sigourney [Weaver, who plays Kiri in Avatar] did the same, and Sam [Worthington] did the same. For me to be a part of an amazing family of people since my 20s, I think, Oh my God, I love them, and I’ll do anything for them.

I can’t wait for Fire and Ash [and] to share it with the world, because it almost killed me. Shooting that scene at the end of The Way of Water was so difficult, but shooting Neytiri and Jake forcing themselves to get up and move on, and be there for their surviving children, was the hardest thing. It teaches you a lot about what it must be like as a parent, as a guardian. How do you also stay together, and how do you let love win once again after experiencing that kind of loss? It’s the most complex thing. We’re born, and I feel like the biggest growth in life is just learning how to die. Every living organism meets their demise, and I feel like a lot of our lives has to be spent accepting it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.