The changing color of Zoe Saldana

SINGAPORE — Zoe Saldana is so into every role she plays (in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Terminal (that earned her the Young Hollywood One to Watch award from Movieline Magazine, among others), she acts oh-so naturally that you can’t help but love her instantly.

In person, it’s even easier to love Zoe because she’s so real, so human (devoid of any star complex at all), so connecting and so warm and friendly that, even if you’re meeting for the first time you feel as if you’ve known each other for a long time. She’s such an engaging talker, so highly intelligent, that she gives kilometric answers to your questions and you don’t mind at all because what she’s saying has substance, not just small talk, especially when the topic is about women empowerment and, yes, color. She’s not just a pretty face (cover girl of Elle magazine, one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year, and MaxMara’s Face of the Future), she also has something great between her ears. Beauty and brains, as the cliché would put it.

In the James Cameron 2009 blockbuster Avatar, Zoe played the blue-colored Neytiri. Now in Marvel Productions’ Guardians of the Galaxy (directed by James Gunn, now showing nationwide), Zoe plays the green-colored character Gamora, one of the misfits forced into a truce with a brash adventurer (played by newcomer Chris Pratt) to save the galaxy from an evil man who is out to explode the galaxy. (Reminder: Just watch the movie to find out what the newest Marvel comic to be filmed is all about.)

During the Guardians junket, Zoe shows up in her true color — deliciously brown (or kayumangging kaligatan), joking that the next time you meet, she might be changing to another color. As you will see in the following Conversation, Zoe becomes passionate when she talks about color of skin. Read on.

Briefly during the interview, she mentions about adobo and how she loves it. Thanks to her Guardians co-star, half-Filipino wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista who plays Drax The Destroyer in Guardians. “But it tastes different when prepared with Latin ingredients,” adds Zoe who is proud of her having nurtured on Latin culture (her father, who died in a car accident when Zoe was nine years old, was from Dominican Republic and her mother is from Puerto Rico, but Zoe was born in New Jersey).

I fall in love with Zoe even more when, after the TV interview for Startalk (aired Sunday last week), Zoe asks if I want some Kisses Chocos from a plateful beside her. I say, “No, thank you. I’d rather have a selfie with you.” She smiles, “Yes, of course!” and makes me pose beside her. Click!

You’ve done drama movies but the public fondly remembers you for your action roles. I wonder, are you into martial arts in real life?

“No. But I’m a physical person. I love taking on challenges like learning to ride a motorcycle or fire a gun. But the sword, well, I’m a little nervous about trying to use it. I’m a little clumsy with knives and scissors. But when it comes to guns and things like that, I like training with experts and knowing whether or not I have the capacity to look legit. I do train on martial arts for a film. I do action movies every now and then so that I won’t forget or lose that muscle memory.”

In action movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, leading ladies are merely decorative. But in this one, you play a strong-woman role at par with those of the male actors. Would you say that this role advances women empowerment in some way?

“Yeah, it’s definitely not a decorative role. If it were, somebody else would be playing Gamora and sitting here for this interview. That’s one thing that I always bear in mind — the character has to speak to you. You know, you read the script and whether or not you respond to it, you have to discuss it with your director.

“That’s exactly what I do all the time. James Gunn offered me the part. He said that I was his first and only choice and he wanted me to really play Gamora. I read the script, I have seen James’ work, particularly Slither (Gunn’s 2006 humorous-horror film that showcased his love for the comedy and horror genres) and I just loved it. It’s a cult movie. I’m a kid of the ‘80s and I love cult movies. So I was really curious about working with James. We have a word in the States, ‘cookie,’ like he’s ‘cookie,’ he’s up there and I like that.  

“So I spoke with James. I was definitely open about giving Gamora a little more substance because when I read the script Gamora was just like eye candy. So I asked myself, ‘While the male characters are talking, what is Gamora gonna do?’ I was going to Canada to shoot for five months and I was going to be on the set every day, what is it that I’m gonna be  doing when I’m not speaking? Should I just be staring at these people back and forth? No way. I had better things to do with my summer.”

And you did succeed in making the Gamora character really substantial, not just ornamental?

“You don’t want to get on the plane without knowing what you’re getting into, before they give you a new draft of the script, do you? You know, there are cases where you’d be told, ‘Oh, don’t worry, once you get on the set we’ll sort everything out.’ Then, you start shooting and you discover that nothing has been changed.

“It’s important for me to leave a trail of substantial things that young women can learn from and be inspired by. My niece is 11 years old and I don’t want her to grow up just wanting to be a princess; I want her to grow up and want to be a king because at the end of the day, why should it not be a possibility for her.

“So in order for me to make that possible for her, I have to leave a trail of great crumbs that she can pick up. So it’s important for me that Gamora feels substantial and feels important. By the time we were starting to shoot, my character Gamora was in a place where I felt, ‘Okay, this is good; this would be worth it.’ It was a great experience. I saw the movie and it’s really good.”

To many people, you seem to be a fearless woman. Are you aware of that?

“Oh my God! I’m a human being. You know, give me 10 minutes with somebody and we can share each other’s story in those 10 minutes. I have to tell you in 10 minutes all the things that I think you should know but it doesn’t mean that I’m completely fearless. You know, we all have things that we fear. Like I’m afraid of failure and that’s why I give 110 percent in everything that I do, especially because I’m a woman and I have to do better.

“I’m also a woman of color and a lot of people in positions of power to delegate that title to me…unfortunately…so I have to try twice as hard because whatever a woman of lighter skin and blonde hair can get just by showing up and being cheerful, I have to walk in and earn it. One thing may be easier for some but may be harder for others. That in itself can be exhausting. Sometimes, I wish that I can just walk in and simply smile and get the part.

“I’m also afraid of not seeing the unification of women in my lifetime the way that I see and admire in men. My husband can collaborate with his colleagues and there might be a friend of his that he might be intimidated with, but there’s still gonna be friends and they can learn from each other and they’re gonna trade some type of knowledge. It’s something that men do naturally. What we women can do naturally is to compete and distract ourselves with petty things, like the way we look, how many men are looking at you versus at me, and that’s time wasted, time that we women could have used by making effort in coming together.”

Talking about men…How was it working with James Gunn compared to working with James Cameron? I mean, how does their working styles differ from each other?

“James has the ability to create the unimaginable and give you the permission to imagine it. That’s the same quality that I’ve seen in other filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, JJ Abrams and James Cameron. You give them something, not something great but something completely unimaginable, and they defy their own gravity and they are particularly themselves. That’s something that they all have in common. They are so interesting; they are busy trying to make magic of every little moment that they have. There are child-like qualities in James that I’ve seen in the other directors that I have worked with. And that makes me very happy to be doing what I do and also to love filmmaking in the way that I and they love it.”

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