I was a real-life ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ just like on the Taylor Sheridan show

nypost.com:

inspiration for Paramount’s forthcoming action thriller “Special Ops: Lioness,” which debuts Sunday and stars Zoe Saldaña, 45, alongside Oscar winners Nicole Kidman, 56, and Morgan Freeman, 86.

The eight-part series — a brainchild of Taylor Sheridan, the visionary behind “Yellowstone” and “Sons of Anarchy” — follows the journey of a young Marine named Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveria, 31, of Netflix’s “Locke & Key”).She’s recruited by the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to befriend the daughter of a terrorist group leader in an effort to ravage the criminal organization.

Saldaña, who plays “Joe,” the station chief charged with readying new recruits for undercover operations, explains the significance of the niche program to De Oliveira’s “Manuelos” in the first episode, noting the evolution of their task force’s duties over the past two decades. “When the Lioness team was first formed we needed female soldiers to frisk and interrogate female insurgents,” she says. “What we do now is locate the wives and the girlfriends and daughters of these high value targets and we place an operative close to them,” continues Joe. “The operative makes friends with them, earns their trust, leads us to the target and we kill the target.” Folwell’s responsibilities didn’t center around covert espionage, but says serving as a Lioness was “life changing” — both for the good and the bad. “We made sure that everyone was safe and no one was carrying any weapons of mass destruction or [improvised explosive devices (IEDs)] or anything that could cause damage throughout the village,” she told The Post. “We conducted humanitarian aid missions and went to refugee camps where we supplied water and food.”“It was very exciting and incredibly.