Zoe Saldana Beaming Onto So Many Magazines You’d Think She’d Been Duplicated

It was an interesting choice by JJ Abrams and crew to elevate the role of Uhura from bit player to center stage – or rather, center bridge – a choice doubtless made easier because of the dynamic Zoe Saldana.

This month, as we go into the real publicity blitz for Star Trek Beyond, CNET Magazine, features Zoe Saldana on the cover of its summer issue, which hit newsstands today.

“If I wasn’t doing these sci-fi movies, I would be at the mercy of filmmakers that would just look my way if they needed a girlfriend or sexy woman of color in their movie,” says Saldana, who talked to CNET from the set of her other space franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy.  “Space is different…but we can still do better.  We can still give women more weight to carry in their roles.”

In her interview, available here, Saldana also discusses technology issues about how much she’s looking forward to the day when she can travel by transporter. Saldana was also interviewed this month by Allure, where she discusses her family life and challenges she’s faced on the road to success.

“I have no problem admitting my errors; just have respect for me,” she says. “If I am just like wallpaper, there’s no need for me to be here. It’s kind of like that Nina Simone song—you’ve got to learn to leave the table when love isn’t being served.”

Saldana has been the break-away star of the nuTrek franchise, with her career having eclipsed leads Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Saldana’s lifetime film gross is $2 billion, while Pine’s is only about $1 billion. While Simon Pegg and Karl Urban are fan darlings because of their long ties to geek culture (f’crying out loud Karl Urban was in Xena, Lord of the Rings, Judge Dredd, AND Star Trek) there’s no doubt that Saldana has been the most successful. She even got to punch Johnny Depp in the first Pirates movie.

Congrats, Lt. Uhura! Here’s hoping your hailing frequencies will always be open for us.

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I’m surprised she brought up Nina Simone in that interview. She’ll do fine if she never mentions her name again.

Heh — I was thinking the same thing, Amorican. It’s really too bad about that Simone movie. I love Zaldana, but that was a gross bit of mis-casting.

Love her as AnaMaria in POTC! I’d forgotten that scene!

But the movie was horridly boring…bad writing, bad directing. Not her fault in the slightest.

Join the discussionAnd bad casting . . .
I skipped it and watched the Nina Simone documentary on Netflix instead.

I don’t blame Zoe for that one though. I’ll watch her in the fun action movies. Good enough for me. Like I said, she’ll do fine.

As Zoe said, it does not have to be the only movie about Nina.
Given the negative reaction to her casting, she probably figured she would not be offered the role a second time.

So she took on the challenge knowing that she wasn’t going to be popular, I respect that.

Or, maybe her motto is “anything for a buck!”

@ Harry Ballz

What is it with you on always tearing down all the female actors on the new Trek movies?

I love Zoe and I love nuUhura, elevating her character to the level of the original trio (and also give me a different kind of relationship to see beyond trek always being so focused on bromances and thus male characters only) was the best thing the first creative team of the reboot did.
also that interview for CNET is visually stunning. I love the pictures where she’s playing with an enterprise model :D she’s adorable.

Hey Zoe, you need to stick your thumb out when you make the Vulcan salute!

Just wanted to say the same thing. In the pic and in the video both times wrong on the cnet site.

So happy she’s in our nu Trek!! Talented and beautiful gal!

Lovely interview! Why isn’t she allowed to quote?