Monday, March 18, 2024

Zoe Saldana Talks Evolution Of Uhura In ‘Star Trek’ Franchise [EUR Exclusive]

Zoe Saldana with husband Marco Perego attend the world premiere of the Paramount Pictures title “Star Trek Beyond” at Embarcadero Marina Park South on July 20, 2016 in San Diego, California.
Zoe Saldana with husband Marco Perego attend the world premiere of the Paramount Pictures title “Star Trek Beyond” at Embarcadero Marina Park South on July 20, 2016 in San Diego, California.

*Zoe Saldana’s breakthrough came in 2009 with the roles of Nyota Uhura in “Star Trek” and Neytiri in James Cameron’s “Avatar” (2009). The latter film is the highest-grossing film of all time. Saldana continued her box off success with films such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) and both “Star Trek” sequels: “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013), and the recently released “Star Trek Beyond,” which is dominating the weekend box office, bringing in $22.5 million in Friday grosses from 3,928 screens. The film also earned an impressive $5.5 million during Thursday night preview screenings, TheWrap reports.

Directed by Justin Lin from a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, “Star Trek Beyond” stars Pegg, Saldana, Idris Elba, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, and Karl Urban. The release of the film happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

Uhura was originally portrayed by Nichelle Nichols through the sixth Star Trek film (from 1966-1991.) Since 2009, a younger Uhura has been portrayed by Saldana. Ms Nichols is widely recognized as having played the first African American character on television in a non-stereotypical role. She’s also credited as having shared the first onscreen interracial kiss with “Star Trek” co-star William Shatner.

We asked Zoe in what groundbreaking ways her version of Uhura could be developed so that it leaves fans of the franchise talking about her fifty years from now.

“I think by encouraging the writers and the producers and the director to not just give her action that just involves something to do with race or with being a woman. I think that if the light switch needs to be turned on, and she’s here with seven other blokes, that she can go, “I got it!.” As opposed to, we need one black woman to stand-up.”

Saldana explained that Uhura “Represents something that is timeless for me because my mother grew up watching it, and she had reasons that were very special to her, but I wanted to be transcendental because it was so important about her merits, and not her appearance. That’s how I would like this Uhura to inspire the future questioners of ‘Why this?’ and ‘Why that?’”

READ RELATED STORY: ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Cast Aim To Push Franchise Forward By Celebrating Diversity

Zoe+Saldana

Has exploring this world of “Star Trek” in any way been a spiritual awakening for you?

ZOE: Anytime I do a movie where the world that I’m part of is — that is normal to me — is in outer space, that’s inspiring. I just love knowing that there’s so much more out there. I’m always curious, so I feel like that’s how doing a film like this inspires me. It keeps me curious.

Spock has some of the best qualities that Earth men seem to lack. He’s attentive and loyal and understands the importance of keeping a lady interested by spending time with her. But what are some of his qualities that Uhura finds most challenging in moving their relationship forward?

ZOE: I think what she finds most challenging is that maybe in her mind, she is starting to feel like he needs to fulfill a bigger purpose. And I think she’s super afraid of weighing him down. I think it’s much more selfless than what anybody thinks. I think they have an amazing friendship, very respectful of each other, but maybe she’s beginning to understand that with all that has happened before, that at some point it’s going to have to go in this direction, and maybe she just wants to get herself out of his way. To never run the chance of him not fulfilling it. She understands that it’s bigger. That’s sort of like the unspoken word between Uhura and Spock.

EUR/Electronic Urban Report was on hand for the “Star Trek” Los Angeles press conference, where Zoe spoke about the evolution of her character, and also her feelings for Spock in ‘Beyond’

“She’s tired. I think she’s homesick, and I felt that-that’s the one thing that I appreciated the most about what Simon and Doug did for this installment. They made us human and homesick and sad, and how being overly worked and away from home, and all the things that keep you grounded, can put a strain not just on the intimate relationships that you may have, but also the professional ones,” Zoe explained. “I thought I would never see the day where I would walk into the Enterprise and we’re kind of like, not rolling our eyes at each other, but we’re not that excited to see each other. And I thought, “Okay, well, this is a great place to start because I can only imagine where we’re going to end up.”

She continued: “And we literally end up in the opposite direction. We’re dying to be close to each other. We’re dying to save each other and get back together. I guess that relationship with Spock and Uhura felt so normal and human to me that it’s sort of the consequences that may occur when you decide to love your co-worker in a lovey-dovey way. It’s just sometimes the professionalism can get in the way of the spirituality and I feel like that’s what happened between both of them.”

It’s fifty years now since “Star Trek” began, Uhura especially has gone through changes that sort of mirror women’s changes not only in science fiction, but also in our culture and society. Zoe shared her views on how Uhura has evolved into what she is going in the franchise today.

“I think there’s a beautiful, I hate to use the word ‘sprouting,’ but it’s true. Women are becoming very-very independent. Not just at the work force but also in their personal lives. There’s just something about realizing that you should want to be a part of something, you don’t necessary have to be a part of something in order for you to be validated, or respected, or appreciated, or considered strong enough.

I feel that this break-up that Uhura and Spock have is amazing because she fell in love with her teacher. So he came as this figure that represented responsibility and safety and maturity and wisdom. There is a parallel universe situation that’s going in here with Uhura and women these days. In that, there’s no longer this animosity or this resentment to sort of prove who you are. You just want to be left alone to sort of find out who you are because you’re interested and you’re curious. I like this autonomy that’s happening with women right now,” Zoe said.

EUR Associate Ny MaGee & Zoe Saldana
EUR Associate Ny MaGee & Zoe Saldana

You always come across so organic onscreen. How easy is it for you to transform into these varying  personas? Do you entertain the art of method acting? 

ZOE: I’m not trained, so I don’t even know what method would entail. I’ve worked with method actors and been that one actor on the make-up trailer and you can’t really say anything to them because they’re zoning. I like approaching it the same way I approach wanting to know about something. I’m just curious, like ‘Who is she?’ Where’s her mom? Where’s her dad? Why did this happen?’ I’ve very investigative in the way I approach and prepare for a character. I need to investigate the why and the how and the want of that individual, but not from an observer,  from like, just putting on the suit. It’s more sensation for me.

You project such strength in owning your craft and standing strong in your womanhood. You’ve also been heavily criticized for comments you’ve made about your racial identity, as well as the backlash you received from playing Nina Simon. Do you ever sit back and reflect on whether it’s harder to get started in this business, or to keep going?

ZOE: I just have so much respect for others that I have respect of self. So my approach has always been primarily to remain open about the situation. Nobody is denying that there were things that just should’ve been done better (with the ‘Nina’ movie), but I’m not going to defend the clear and pure intention and the love that I have for her. When she sang ‘Four Women,’ I was one of them. I will always be one of them. I don’t need to ever explain that. Am I a wiser person after this experience? Absolutely. Am I happy that we may get to see more films about her? Elated.

“Star Trek Beyond” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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