There’s only one actor who appears in all three of the highest-grossing films of all time, and it’s Zoe Saldaña, making her by several metrics one of the greatest actors around.
And it’s not like she only does blockbusters like Avengers and Avatar, either. She’s won several of the top prizes in the industry, including a Bafta, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. On paper, few (if any) performers come close to her.
On her journey to movie peak, Saldaña has shared the trek with Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, and Glenn Close, has been directed by James Cameron, James Gunn, and Steven Spielberg, and done countless other stunts us mere mortals can only dream of. She has an insight into the world of film that few others possess, which is why her opinion is so valuable.
As part of an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, the Gamora actor was asked to name five of her favourite films, where alongside picking 1980s classics like The Goonies and The Terminator, Saldaña also revealed her love for a much older film: Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent masterpiece, The Kid.
“It’s a very emotional and melodramatic subject, and only someone like Charlie Chaplin was able to make it whimsical and funny, but also so heartfelt and sincere,” she explained, gushing, “I feel like he wouldn’t have gotten there if not for his vaudeville years. […] the fact that he came from nothing. He came into an empire with talent. He had nothing and he had nothing to lose, therefore he gave it all.”
The Kid begins with Chaplin’s famous Tramp character rescuing an abandoned baby from two thieves, whom he raises as his own, getting into various scrapes in classic silent film fashion. As well as being very funny, the movie also hits all the right emotional notes. It ends with the boy and his birth mother reuniting and then accepting The Tramp into their family, which must have left audiences weeping in their seats.
Not only was The Kid a huge hit for Chaplin as a performer, but also as a creative force. This was the first feature-length film the moustachioed star would direct. It ran to a total of 68 minutes, which still sounds on the short side, but was practically Gone with the Wind by the standards of the day. He followed it up a year later with A Woman of Paris, his first direction that he did not star in. Over the years, he would sit in the director’s chair a number of other times, including for the likes of City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator.
Now widely regarded as not just one of Chaplin’s best films but one of the best films of all time, The Kid is still studied today as a masterclass in conveying emotions without words. Saldaña is absolutely spot-on in her assessment of the film, which still packs a hefty punch over 100 years after it first wordlessly hit screens.
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