While attending the premiere of Avatar: The Way of Water, actress Zoe Saldaña stated at the premiers blue carpet reception that she was grateful for the opportunities that the famous directors have given her.
“I would love to set the record straight,” Saldaña said. “I feel grateful and like the luckiest girl in this town knowing that I was invited to join films with special directors in a special cast. And they resonated with people so much so that we get a chance to come back again and come back another time. If anything, I’ve reaped all the benefits of that, I’ve gained friends. I still have mentors that I call and I lean into.”
Saldaña further stated “But you know, I think that once I started my family, it just became really hard for me to sustain both worlds and also then cater to this curiosity of playing other different characters or playing earthlings you know, but I’m happy in space. I’ve always been happy in space. I relate to people that love space as well.”
Saldaña has played Gamora across multiple films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and with plans for several more sequels of Avatar, she could potentially be portraying Neytiri for years to come. Her comments echoed that she had not been able to experiment with other roles and felt “stuck doing these franchises.”
One of the more common arguments that you hear from movie critics and talking heads in Hollywood is that movie stars no longer exist. Obviously, there are still actors that anchor major studio releases, but the critique is aimed at how modern actors are seemingly incapable of rousing interest from the audience as of late.
The current belief is that audiences care more about intellectual properties and licensed characters, more than traditional actors.
As an example, in a podcast interview, Quentin Tarantino, writer, producer & director of film classics “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” stated this observation during a recent interview, claiming that Marvel actors aren’t movie stars.
Then we have, Zoe Saldaña one of the Marvel’s most important actors, thanks to her role as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy. Now that Avatar: The Way of Water has now passed the $2 billion mark, making Saldaña the first actor with four films that have earned over $2 billion according to comscore.
