Zoe Saldaña reveals the 'bizarre' experience she had during 'Avatar' audition: "First they told me..."
'Avatar: The Way of Water' star Zoe Saldana is recalling her terrible experience auditioning for her role in the famous franchise! For the unversed, Saldana is well-known for playing the character of Na'vi native Neytiri in James Cameron's blockbuster science fiction films. While appearing in an episode of 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon', Saldana talked about her audition for Neytiri and how she managed to become a part of Pandora's blue world. During her audition, Saldana was pretty confused as she didn't quite understand what character she was playing. When asked about her role, it was introduced to her as a hybrid of “a warrior princess” and “a robot.”
"First they told me that it was like about this robot, this female robot. I thought it was like Alita: Battle Angel. But it’s set like in the jungle. And I was like, ‘Well, that doesn’t really make any sense. Like a warrior princess was a robot, like a sentient, what is that?’ But Mali Finn, who was the casting director at that time... then, Margery Simkin took the part of casting it, they would sometimes just come in and call me. And I was still living in New York at the time, and they would put me on tape. And sometimes it was like ‘Bring some tight stuff, I want you to climb, and do some cartwheels.’ And I’m like ‘okay.’ So I would come in, it’s like 'We’ll, we’ll just play. Let’s move some furniture'," Saldana said at that time, according to Collider.
Saldana also praised the efforts of the crew. Along with this, she mentioned that her dance background helped her to bag the role of Neytiri in her kitty. "I feel like I was able to book the part because of [my dance background]. And then one time, they called me in and I put myself on tape again for them, and they were like ‘just make all these sounds.’ And I’m like ‘well, okay.’ And I’m thinking like James Cameron, a robot warrior princess that’s in the jungle, and I’m doing, R, like *tongue rolls* rolling my Rs, I don’t know what this is, but I dig it," she added. While talking about her confusion about the film's plot, Saldana said, "And they gave me the script. And the script was like this thick. They gave me three hours to read it, I took six. Because it was just, all the direction describing the whole world of Pandora was just really bizarre to me."
Now, Saldana will be seen reprising her role as Neytiri in 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' which has been directed and co-written by James Cameron. While having a conversation with Deadline, Saldana spoke about her upcoming project and said, “The way that we left the Sully family, they’re mourning heavily the loss of their child. So I do believe that that will carry out a great deal in the third installment of Avatar. Jake and Neytiri are on this journey of acceptance, of accepting who they are and what they must be for each other, and how they’re going to push forward to keep their family safe. And I love the fact that at the core of this entire saga is a beautiful love story, and I love that Jim really wrote that for them. But it’s not going to be easy. They’re not always going to meet eye to eye, and I just hope that they keep each other safe. That’s my hope for them.”
When we shed light on Saldana's recent projects, she was recently seen in the second season of Paramount's show 'Special Ops: Lioness.' The spy thriller show has been made by 'Yellowstone' creator Taylor Sheridan. On the other hand, Saldana will soon be starring in 'Elio', a sci-fi movie directed by Domee Shi, Adrian Molina, and Madeline Sharafian. Saldana's upcoming movie 'Elio' is slated to hit the screens on June 13, 2025. We can't wait to see what Saldana has in store for all her fans in the future.