Zoe Saldana was the lucky woman to nab the role of the green-skinned assassin in the James Gunn helmed space epic Guardians of the Galaxy, which wasn't too different than what she is used to. She thinks that playing some sort of alien is better than playing a regular human and that women are given a bigger opportunity to play a meaningful character when they are in space, and she is someone who should know this considering she had leading roles in both Avatar and JJ Abrams' Star Trek, and now Guardians of the Galaxy.
"I like being in space because there are better parts for women in space. I don’t have to subject myself to just being the love interest or playing a character that doesn’t feel relevant to the story or playing a woman that doesn’t feel like an actual depiction of a real woman. When I read films in space and I’m working with these kinds of filmmakers there’s a neutral sense to the way they develop characters. It makes me feel very significant, very relevant and very excited."
Her point behind this is most likely that movies in space seem to focus more on serious threats and trying to save the universe, so all characters, even women, need to do their fair share of helping out. However, even Marvel, along with a lot of other movie studios now, are trying hard to incorporate female characters in more significant roles down here on Earth. Even Warner Bros. is bringing in Wonder Woman, who could be a really great way to help give female characters a bigger part. She talked a little bit more about starring in these sorts of movies, saying that another quality that attracts her is the fact that the directors have are more imaginative and interesting.
"They give themselves the right to imagine the unimaginable. I’m the kind of person that, even if I wasn’t in this business, and I was at a BBQ and someone like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams was at that BBQ - and they weren’t filmmakers - we’d still end up talking. I’d be in that group. I’d gravitate towards those people more - they’re such interesting creatures to me!"
You can catch Guardians of the Galaxy in theaters August 1st.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits–Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand - with the galaxy’s fate in the balance. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is presented by Marvel Studios and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gilian, Djimon Hounsou with John C. Reilly, Glenn Close as Commander Rael and Benicio del Toro as The Collector. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the film opens August 1, 2014.