Although ballet was her first passion Zoe Saldana switched to acting because she wanted to use her voice as well. Moreover, in an interview to Vanity Fair, she admitted that she was too ambitious to confine herself in a ballet group. Always a free thinker, she has spoken freely in interviews, decrying too much censor in cinemas. She has also talked freely about her aspirations and beliefs. A proud Latino, she believes that “glamour is about feeling good in your own skin” and says she would do anything to keep her body beautiful without going against nature. Let us now look into some of her quotes, which give us an insight into not only her thoughts, but also her background.
The biggest obstacle I've had to overcome is being a woman in a man's world.
Zoe Saldana
Trust me: Studios, investors, filmmakers, they will shift because they just follow the money trail.
Zoe Saldana
You find a way to work with people you have more in common with.
Zoe Saldana
Science fiction is a genre that no everyone is keen on watching.
Zoe Saldana
Where people really base their principles has nothing to do with the color of someone's skin, it has to do with money and their class.
Zoe Saldana
I never really watched the TV series.
Zoe Saldana
Fathers, sons, brothers, men everywhere: Your legacy will not perish if you take your partner's surname, or she keeps hers.
Zoe Saldana
I do believe in us as actors and directors and writers and producers and also as movie-goers. We have much more power than we believe we have. Without our ticket, studios can't make traditional decisions.
I'm more of a guy's girl. I like having a beer in a bar, and I don't bicker or sit down and do my nails.
Zoe Saldana
I'm so intrigued by women throughout history where the significance of what they were representing at that time is obscured by the fact a man saved them or they were prostitutes.
Zoe Saldana
If there's anything that I've always said about myself is that to me, it's much more important for me to get to work with filmmakers that I've grown up loving and admiring.
Zoe Saldana
I love women. I worship women. Don’t want to be any other woman but myself.
Zoe Saldana
On the basis of being a woman, by playing an alien, I avoid playing someone's girlfriend here on Earth because that's a bit of a canker sore.
Zoe Saldana
It's insecure, and it's immature.
Zoe Saldana
I don't like things like little sandals that look fragile. I like to look strong and commanding.
Zoe Saldana
I love wearing men's clothing and underwear.
Zoe Saldana
I think there are roles there; we just have to choose them. We have to fight for them.
Zoe Saldana
I'm a sci-fi girl. If I can have anything in life, I'd want tons of great science-fiction movies and stories. It's so progressive, beautiful, and imaginative.
Sometimes we get too caught up in wanting to do that one movie that will get seen and approved and nominated, that we lose sight that there are so many other movies that are worth your time.
Zoe Saldana
I'm a fan of the fan. I'm a fan of the active devotee who lives his life believing in something, who represents to me the character of a person that is very confident and sure of himself. Those are people I admire.
I'm a girl from Queens. I've never gone, 'What am I doing today? Oh, I'm gonna grab a gun and learn how to use it.'
Zoe Saldana
I would love to play Nefertiti or Cleopatra or the Queen of Sheba. We preserve more male history than we do female. We have to preserve [female history]. No more complaining. We have to do it.
Zoe Saldana
I love skin. I don't believe the body is something to hide.
There's nobody on this earth who can tell you that what you're feeling is wrong. They can tell you it's different to what they're feeling.
Zoe Saldana
Let's start creating better roles that accurately depict people we know so closely.
Zoe Saldana
What doesn't feel okay to me, what feels a little bit out of balance, is when you want to turn yourself into something else - when you want to be another person.
Zoe Saldana
I'm learning the power of going away for the weekend and keeping myself company.
Zoe Saldana
If there's any relevant influence we may have with an investor, with a studio, with a director, with an actor, I think we have to fight.
Zoe Saldana
I always strive to keep a balance with my fears. I don't like to be ruled by them. At the same time, I don't like the idea of living my life totally free of any fears. I like having that moderation.
Zoe Saldana
You have to be very committed and find happiness in the work that you do.
Zoe Saldana
I'm a very feminine person, but I have this hard shell, man, and I stay focused and don't take things personally.
Zoe Saldana
You need one hundred percent commitment; you have to be willing to wake up every morning knowing you're going to [practice] eight hours straight.
Zoe Saldana
I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.
I like to be around people who are very passionate. People that won't fight but that will be very over-protective and outspoken about their opinion, their point of view, their ideas.
Zoe Saldana
I want to have more sex, travel more, drink more wine and love life.
Zoe Saldana
Not to settle. If you're not happy with a person, leave. And wait until you find that one person who makes you feel good about yourself every single day and is not expecting you to change, but to grow.
Zoe Saldana
It's ok to say, 'this is what I want' and go after it.
Zoe Saldana
I'm very accepting with my age. It's like notches on your belt: experience, wisdom, and a different kind of beauty. There comes a day when you've become comfortable in your skin.
Zoe Saldana
Sometimes we have to be patient because the one thing that is inevitable in life is evolution. Whether it comes at the pace that we are expecting it or not, it’s inevitable.
I never like to get political, but when you have the ability, through your media, to influence a large mass of people, I would want to be a part of the evolving cycle of progress vs. keeping things the way that they are.
There are a lot of magazines that are still sort of... that only cater to a certain demographic and only put certain people on their covers.
Zoe Saldana
I'm so intrigued by women throughout history where the significance of what they were representing at that time is obscured by the fact a man saved them or they were prostitutes.
I'm a sci-fi girl. If I can have anything in life, I'd want tons of great science-fiction movies and stories. It's so progressive, beautiful, and imaginative.
Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don't have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off.
I know the responsibility that entails from telling a story. The one thing I despise the most is when I go to a movie and I see a whole bunch of lazy actors making me waste my time and money.
I just want to be part of great stories that are told and for them to be relevant.
Zoe Saldana
I just want to be a part of great stories, whether I'm part of an amazing ensemble cast or I'm leading it or the antagonist or whatever.
Zoe Saldana
If there's anything that I've always said about myself is that to me, it's much more important for me to get to work with filmmakers that I've grown up loving and admiring.
I'm very accepting with my age. It's like notches on your belt: experience, wisdom, and a different kind of beauty. There comes a day when you've become comfortable in your skin.
What doesn't feel okay to me, what feels a little bit out of balance, is when you want to turn yourself into something else - when you want to be another person.
People think of Latina women as being fiery and fierce, which is usually true. But I think the quality that so many Latinas possess is strength. I'm very proud to have Latin blood.
I don't understand labels. I don't need anybody to tell me I'm Latina or black or anything else. I've played characters that were written for Caucasian females, I just want to be given the same consideration as everybody else, and so far that has been happening.
Britney's a very beautiful human being. After I worked with her, I realized that there was a reason why she was the most popular pop artist over so many other pop artists at that time who were more talented, had better voices. And it was because of her heart, her soulShe had the most amazing energy and was always positive and a very discreet person. We were young, too, and got to make a movie about three friends on a road trip. It was so much fun!
In Caribbean there is no middle class: you're either rich or you're poor. And the ladder to success is not really a ladder, it's a chain; once you reach a certain level, you can't go back and you can only keep going forward.
Zoe Saldana
Dancing for the length of time that I did, it centered me in such a way to be really in tune with my body, and I just feel like I'm physically able to do things because of my ballet background. Without ballet, I don't think I'd look graceful at all on screen.
Zoe Saldana
Our censorship has sort of gotten a little too far. Too much censorship is just as bad as having none at all. Children need to be exposed to things, because if they don't see it, eventually, it's not like it's not going to happen, but it's just that there needs to be a balance.
As actors you have this trait to imitate very easily. I don't want to imitate anything or limit myself of finding this creature, this woman because I'm looking at magazines and I'm reading comics, and I'm asking people that are avid readers of The Guardians.
Zoe Saldana
For me, it's very important if I do action movies and I have a stunt person, to work with them. Not only by memorizing the choreography but also it's important to study that individual and it's imperative for that individual to study you because you're not playing two different people, you're playing the same person.
Zoe Saldana
I was a ballet dancer for so long, but when I realized I had reached my limit and that I couldn't go any further I knew I wanted to pursue acting. That's one thing you don't use as a dancer - your voice. And the one thing I use most in my life is my voice so it's wonderful to get to express myself artistically through the biggest instrument I use.
Zoe Saldana
I love being in space. I love being challenged by great roles that a company like Marvel creates amazing movies that no only give audiences an adventure but also give us as artists an opportunity for us to be challenged to embody amazing, multilayered characters.
There was this book that Judi Dench wrote that said there was a moment where, before an actor can be this or be that, the actor must simply be. I thought that to have absolute presence was to absorb everything that’s thrown at you.
Zoe Saldana
I knew who Leonard Nimoy was, and that he embodied what Star Trek meant to all the fans. But it wasn't until I started doing my research for this movie, and started going to fan sites, that I began to fall in love with these characters.
