There are two big sci-fi space movies being released this year and actress Zoe Saldana managed to bag a role in both of them. She will burst onto everybody’s radar with the release of Star Trek next week, and then in December we will see her again in Avatar (although it is possible we physically won’t, as she plays an alien and will be all CGI/motion-captured up). Saldana recently spoke to MTV and gave praise to the directors of both films, and she also reveals she has high hopes for James Cameron’s Avatar.
“It’s amazing for an actor to work with J.J. and Jim,” Saldana gushed. “They are similar in that they are exquisite at what they do, and they are young at heart.”
When comparing the two A-list directors, Saldana said: “J.J. has made a very important place for himself in Hollywood by being an exquisite writer. And Jim has done the same by being an amazing voyager and visionary, and a great filmmaker.”
Of the Oscar-winning Cameron, Saldana said he is the true Captain Kirk. “He goes where no man has gone before.”
The futuristic tale revolves around humans who discover life on another planet in a distant solar system, leading to a war between the two species as they go head-to-head in a battle for survival.
“‘Avatar’ by far is the most physically strenuous film I’ve ever done,” Saldana, no newbie to the biz, admitted. “A role had never challenged me to the point where it freaked me out and scared me. And ‘Avatar’ definitely did that.”
With so much riding on a film that James Cameron has been envisioning since 1997’s “Titanic” but was put on hold for almost a decade due to sky-high production costs, everyone involved seems to have a sense of nervous apprehension. “I really have high hopes for it,” Saldana explained. “Because for two years I gave every bit of me in that part.”
When asked if Saldana had seen the film, she admitted to glimpsing an early cut. “I have, yes,” she revealed, struggling to find words to describe it.
“I can’t curse so I’ll just say it looks nice,” she laughed. “What I really want to say is going to get bleeped out.”
In other Avatar related news ComingSoon spoke to Ocean’s Eleven trilogy director Steven Soderbergh who also had a few things to say about the footage he’s seen:
“I’ve seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It’s the craziest sh*t ever.
Avatar has a habit of causing people to use this type of language, or gives them the urge to. I wonder if December 19th 2009 will win the ‘most profanity used in a single day’ award.
