Zoe Saldana Once Shared Her ‘Avatar’ Character ‘Freaked Me out’
For actor Zoe Saldana, being in the 2009 Avatar movie was a dream come true. But when she’d read the film’s script, she admitted to being freaked out by the character she’d be playing.
Zoe Saldana landed ‘Avatar’ thanks to her background in ballet
One of the unique skills that won Saldana the role of a lifetime was her background in dancing. Although Saldana considered it her first passion, she ultimately decided it wasn’t for her.
“Ballet has always been my first passion, but I simply didn’t have the feet, and I have way too much pride and ambition to just be in the corps,” she once told Vanity Fair.
But her history in ballet wasn’t for nothing. Her ability as a dancer would later prove instrumental in nabbing her the part in Avatar.
“I think I would have never booked Avatar if it weren’t for my ballet background,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “The actress James Cameron wanted was physically able. I thank god for something like ballet, which gave that space for me to be by myself and find peace. Ballet was my meditation, my therapy, my escape, my answer.”
Why Zoe Saldana was freaked out by her ‘Avatar’ character
In James Cameron’s highest-grossing film, Zoe Saldana plays the alien Neytiri, who’s a native of the planet Pandora. Upon earning her spot in the coveted film, Saldana knew she was in for a period of grueling training. Because of what lay ahead, she had an extreme reaction to the script she was given and the character she’d be playing.
“I knew, because this character freaked me out, the moment I read the script and as I was doing the readings with Jim and with Sam and I knew that this character was not going to be easy,” Saldana told Games Radar in a 2009 interview.
Saldana wanted to start training immediately after reading the script to do Neytiri justice.
“I knew the training I was going to have to do if I was going to do the part, so when Jim offered me the part, I said, ‘I want to start now. Today,'” she recalled. “I was still living in New York at the time and he was, like, ‘woah… What do you mean?’ And I said, ‘I want to do everything. I want to train, because by the time we start shooting and you pick up that camera, I don’t want to have to think about anything like that. I want it to all come very naturally, so I can focus on the characters and the story.'”
Zoe Saldana couldn’t deal with her ‘Avatar’ training after spending three days muddy and almost naked
The training wasn’t easy for Saldana. There were times when Cameron even pushed the Guardians of the Galaxy member to her breaking point.
“It was the most physically demanding role I’ve ever done. I trained in everything from riding bareback and martial arts to archery. I was okay with almost all of it except our trip to Hawaii before filming to experience a tropical environment like Pandora,” Saldana once told Parade.
Saldana was driven to her absolute physical and emotional limit. But even after she reached it, Cameron still encouraged her to push further.
“Jim made us live for three days without technology and a minimum of creature comforts while we went climbing and digging in the dirt. I was almost naked for three days and as muddy as a dead rat. I finally went, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ and Jim said, ‘Oh, come on, Zoe, suck it up,'” she remembered.
