Zoe Saldana has been kicking butt all the way to the top, all while looking fabulous and fierce.
In the action star’s latest movie Colombiana, Zoe plays a bloodthirsty woman seeking revenge for the murder of her parents by a ruthless Colombian drug lord.
Zoe Saldana Sets Miami On Fire For “Colombiana” Premiere!
The stunning Dominican has been taking action films by storm and has quickly become one of the most bad-ass chicks in Hollywood.
Check out what Zoe had to say about being an action star, how she prepares for her roles and her success below!
So we had Linda Carter, we had Angelina Jolie, we had Pam Grier and now Zoe Saldana. Do you feel comfortable with the title of being the next female action star?
Zoe Saldana: And we also had Eartha Kitt. I feel so happy to be at least loosely included with a group of women that throughout film history, have distinguished themselves by not only being amazing characters and actresses, but being physically agile. If you have it, use it and I think because of my ballet background, I have had the privilege of being able to easily tap into roles that are physically demanding, as well as emotionally, of course.
Amandla Stenberg plays the young Cataleya and she’s bringing it also. How was it working with her and did you train together?
We did, we had a couple of meetings when she was cast in California and it was just about us studying each other so there were moments where we could just be having lunch and I can find her looking at me and we wanted to learn things that we have do in common. One of the things we found out very early, as soon as we met, we both like to pick our ear. When we’re listening or talking, we’re just picking our ear and Olivier Megaton who was watching us and recording us, he was like, ‘Okay good!, keep that, whatever it is you guys are doing, you guys are doing at the same time. Do you guys know? Are you guys doing that on purpose?’ We’re like ‘No’ and we’re like, ‘Oh look at you! Look at you! Oh my god!’ So we kept doing that. But she was exceptional, she really tapped into this character and this melancholy this character needs to possess in order to deliver her, once it falls in my hands and we were absolutely blown away.
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With Avatar and all these movies you’ve done, when the movie is over do you still train? Are you still practicing kick-ass moves all year?
My stunt coordinator that trained me for Avatar, Garrett Warren, who is a very good friend, I do train with him like once every two weeks. But I’ve learned now the older that I’m getting, when I finish a movie and I don’t have anything lined up, I really have to relax because my body starts asking for that and even if my brain wants to pick my butt up and take me to the gym, my body’s just like, I don’t know what we’re doing here but you think you’re going to work out? Good luck. My legs feel like cement, I cannot move. So I do give myself a break, but as soon as I know I need to do a film, I like to know three months ahead of time, because I immediately start just hitting it hard.
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We’ve talked about working with Olivier and you’ve worked with a lot of great directors and producers, Bruckheimer, Spielberg, JJ, all these great people. How was it working on this with all of them? Because it looked like you kicked double the ass for half the budget!
It’s a two in one special. I felt so privileged, it’s moments like that, when you know that you’re going to do a movie with Luke Wilson, or James Cameron or JJ or Steven that I feel, that’s when I sort of step out outside of myself and I go, way to go kid.
Because that is my main goal and it’s the reason why I became an actor, to work with filmmakers that, when I was a little girl they’re the reason I got here because I would look at Terminator, and I would look at Cocoon and E.T. and I would just go, one day… Or like The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita and I would go, one day I’m going to work with them, I’m totally right, you hearing me, I’m going to totally work with them and I’ve been crossing these names off of my bucket list. I feel really, really blessed and they have not been disappointing, none of them.
I feel so blessed because they have gotten to where they are because they’re amazing, they’re fathers, they’re sons, they’re brothers, they’re friends, they’re men before they are filmmakers and they incorporate all that into their magic. I like the fact that these men, the one thing they have in common is that they really like to see women play different things besides the conventional roles that we’ve been subjected to playing since the beginning of time.
