Between Avatar and Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Zoe Saldana is far from a stranger to the world of science fiction to the point that the Dominican-Puerto Rican actress feels she has traversed race and gender.
“I get to imagine the unimaginable. I’m always in awe of writers, directors and actors who are able to pull off a world we’ve never seen – I love working with people who let their imaginations go. Plus, you get to play characters who defy gravity. I like that,” Saldana, who unveiled her wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Hollywood on Friday (April 7), told The Daily Telegraph.
“It makes me feel superhuman because, obviously, it’s been brought to my attention continuously since I was born that I’m not a conventional person because of the colour of my skin or my gender or my cultural background,” she continued. “So I think science fiction has given me the ability as an artist to be colourblind, and gender-blind, and to imagine and reinvent myself and be the chameleon actors are supposed to be.”
The Star Trek Beyond star wasn’t afforded such luxury when she took on the life of Nina Simone in the heavily criticized Nina biopic, nor did she sing the same tune. Annoyed by the debate on her blackness, the Queens native defended her decision to bear “blackface” and a prosthetic nose for her most controversial role to date in an interview with Allure last year. “You have no idea who I am. I am black. I’m raising black men,” she said. “Don’t you ever think you can look at me and address me with such disdain.”
Whatever works for the time being, we guess.