Zoe Saldaña carried ballet mentality with her into acting

Zoe Saldaña still carries herself as a dancer even though she no longer pursues it professionally.

The actress has reflected on hanging up her ballet slippers when she realised she wasn't going to be a prima ballerina.

"I had a moment, when I was almost 18, when I realised I wasn't going to shatter that glass ceiling and become a prima ballerina," she told W Magazine. "I didn't have it in me to be in the corps. And there was also the curiosity of using my voice - the only instrument that I wasn't using when I was dancing."

The Emilia Pérez star, 46, explained although that she "transitioned" into acting, she still carries her ballet mentality with her.

"I still carry myself as a dancer," she shared. "I am very militant when I approach experiences and projects and events in my life. I am also very hard on myself. Dancers can be really, really hard on themselves. But that self-discipline - I haven't experienced any sport or art form that teaches you discipline the way ballet does."

Elsewhere in the interview, Zoe said she was keen for her sons, twins Cy and Bowie and youngest Zen, to take up ballet.

"I'm trying. I'm not going to give up," the Guardians of the Galaxy actress insisted. "Studies have shown that it is so therapeutic for men to take any form of dance at a very early age or throughout their lives because they carry so much tension and emotion."

Zoe noted that while the twins have taken up tap dancing, her youngest son is more interested in football.

"He wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo; he wants to be Lionel Messi," she added. "But my twins are very much like, 'Yo, girls are in there? They're dancing hip-hop?' And they'll dance."