Zoe Saldana 's dad wanted to name her after an ex-girlfriend

Zoe told Jessie and Lennie Ware on the latest episode of their 'Table Manners' podcast: "My mom and my dad, they were really young parents, and they either were making love or they were fighting.

"I guess that throughout my pregnancy, my mom and my dad were at each other's wits end.

"They couldn't decide on a name because my dad wanted to name me Yadira, which is my second name, and then when my mom learned that it was based on an old girlfriend of his.

"She's like: 'I am not going to name my kid the name of some ex-girlfriend that you still like, f*** you.'

"She liked Zoe. There was something about Zoe."

The 'Emilia Perez' star - who has Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage - originally had the accent on her surname missing from her birth certificate because of an "entitlement" over America's first language, English, and now she tries to stay mindful of how people want to be called.

She added: "That gave me permission to make that choice, come into that awareness of, 'Wait a minute, this is not my full name. My full name is Zoe Saldana, and it's no longer my job to help you pronounce my name. But it's also my job not to take it personally if you can't.'

Zoe - who is married to Italian movie producer Marco Perego-Saldana - also revealed she "loved" working on 'Emilia Perez' because she felt the Netflix film "aligned" with her.

She admitted: "A film about women in Spanish, and Opera, a tragedy like everything about it, just is aligned with me, you know, and I loved it.

"It was a wonderful experience to be a part of. It was a wonderful challenge that I took upon myself, and I feel proud of myself.

"Usually, I'm very hard on myself, but I feel proud and then just the reception of it has been really positive."

'Table Manners' is released weekly on all podcast streaming platforms.