Sexy Uhura is back in Star Trek
Published 21 April, 2009, 11:19
“Uhura is someone I’d like to be when I grow up!” says one of Hollywood’s most promising and beautiful actresses, Zoe Saldana.
Zoe Saldana is best known for her role as Anamaria in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.'
She was raised in Queens, studied ballet in the Dominican Republic, and launched her acting career in New York.
Saldana has won praise from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, as well as from one of Hollywood’s most successful producers/scriptwriters/directors – J.J. Abrams, who offered Zoe one of the key roles in 'Star Trek.'
“He was so vocal from the beginning that he didn’t hire us so that we can imitate the actors that played these roles, he hired us so that we can dive into these roles and become these characters,” said Zoe in an exclusive interview with RT.
The role of Uhura, once played by Nichelle Nichols, could become Saldana’s breakthrough role.
“I did have the honor of meeting Nichelle Nichols, and talking to her on a personal level. She’s just such a graceful woman still now. She commands so much presence, that I felt I knew why Nichelle did such an amazing Uhura. I felt whatever Uhura is, she’s definitely very elegant and stoic.”
Zoe says playing Uhura was a real challenge.
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“I was afraid of falling short… I know that the 'Trek' world is so big and for 40 years, fans have kept this franchise alive…So their opinions on the cast and everything else were among the things that I was regarding really highly.”
The rising star shared with RT that she didn’t see the original 'Star Trek' series. However, she had a lot of conversations with the director J.J. Abrams. “I was also figuring out what kind of person Uhura was, according to the way she was interacting with other characters.”
Is the 30 year-old actress anything like her fearless character Uhura in real life?
“Oh God I wish! I wish I had an ounce of every character I’ve ever played. Uhura is definitely someone I’d like to be when I grow up… But still, there’s a lot of me in Uhura. When I’m doing a character, I wake up every morning trying to think like my character.”
In 2007, Zoe Saldana was chosen as one of the most beautiful people in the world by People Magazine. “It’s always flattering when people consider you pretty. It makes you feel good, but I think that you always have to fight really hard to not allow anyone to put you in a box. That means whether a beautiful box, or feisty box, or tomboy box, or the girl-next-door box. Playing characters that were different from the ones before is definitely a good thing…”
Watch RT’s exclusive interview with Star Trek’s Eric Bana April, 29 on our web site!
Valeria Paikova, RT
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