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Zoe Saldana is an American actress, producer and dancer, known for her role as Anamaria in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Here are 50 interesting facts about Zoe -
- Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario was born on June 19, 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey. However, she was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York.
- Her parents - Aridio Saldaña, her father, was from the Dominican Republic, while Asalia Nazario, her mother is from Puerto Rico. She also has Haitian and Lebanese roots.
- She has two sisters - Cisely and Mariel, and a half-brother named Nipo, a Dominican artist and producer, famous as "Nipo 809."
- When she was nine years old, her father died in a car crash. Her family moved to Dominican Republic, where she discovered her interest in dancing.
- She attended training at the prestigious ECOS Espacio de Danza Dance Academy and learned ballet as well as other dance forms.
- At the age of 17, Zoe along with her family, moved back to New York, after her sophomore year in high school.
- Every time she travels to the Dominican Republic, she is asked the same question “Do you consider yourself Dominican or American?” and her reply is the same – “It doesn't matter how much backlash I will get for it. I will honor and respect my black community because that's who I am.”
- She started her acting career with the FACES theater group in Brooklyn in the year 1995. Later, she even performed with the New York Youth Theater.
- She was first recruited by a talent agency, for her performance in the New York Youth Theater production of "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat."
- Her first appearance that gained her some exposure was in an episode of "Law & Order" (titled "Merger") which first aired in 1999.
- This acting experience and her dance training, helped her get her first film role - Eva Rodriguez, the talented and headstrong ballet student in the film "Center Stage" (2000).
- The very next year, she landed roles in the movies - "Get Over It" and "Snipes." She quit schooling to perform in these movies.
- In the "Get Over It" movie, late singer and actress Aaliyah was initially considered to play the role of Maggie in the film, that was played by Zoe Saldana.
- In 2002, she starred in Crossroads playing the character of Kit, along with Britney Spears and Anson Mount. The movie was one of the highest grossing movies in Japan, due to Spears’ popularity.
- The same year, she played the lead character in the movie Drumline with her co-star Nick Cannon.
- She received her first nomination for the MTV Movie Awards: Best Kiss, that she shared with Nick.
- Zoe is often mistaken for Thandie Newton, famous for her role in “The Pursuit of Happiness,” “Mission: Impossible II,” and “2012.” In fact, even her mother Asalia Nazario once mistook both of the actresses.
- Her next role Anamaria in the “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in 2003, was a major turning point her career.
- She did not enjoy her time with this movie and once said that "Those weren't the right people for me. I'm not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I'm talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors. It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus P As. It was very elitist. I almost quit the business. I was 23 years old, and I was like, "F- this!" I am never putting myself in this situation again. People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet and they think I'm not important. F- you."
- She never reprised her role in the movie series, even though she was set to star in the sequels. Even during the filming of the final scene of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006),” the entire cast expected Zoe to return, when they were informed about “an old friend” returning, which was Geoffrey Rush.
- She was voted as one among the 100 Most Beautiful People in the World list in People magazine, in May 2007.
- The same year, she was the lead in Latin artist Juan Luis Guerra's music video for his song "La Llave De Mi Corazon."
- She was ranked #42 on Maxim magazine's Hot 100 Women list in the year 2008.
- Her next major breakthrough was in the movie “Avatar” in the year 2009, in which she starred as the alien huntress Neytiri. Though, in the original draft of the movie, Zoe’s role was named Zuleika.
- The movie was a box office success and grossed around $27 million on its opening day, with $77 million in the opening weekend. “Avatar” is the first movie to gross more than $2 billion worldwide.
- To prepare for the roles, Director James Cameron took the entire cast to Hawaii, to spend time trekking through forests and jungles and learn about the like of tribes. Zoe Saldana even dressed up as a warrior – complete with the alien tail similar to the one in her character, during the trekking.
- She did an intense course in martial arts training, archery and horseback riding for the movie.
- “Avatar” was nominated for a number of awards including 10 Saturn awards, of which the movie won all the awards. Zoe also received the Saturn Award for Best Actress. She also won the Best Actress Award by Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Film and the Empire Awards.
- Talking about her role in “Avatar,” Zoe said “I will say is that my Avatar (2009) character, Neytiri, has been the most challenging of my entire career - physically, mentally and spiritually. It's the first time I played a non-human, I had to learn a different language, and it was hard to part with her at the end. No matter how intense other characters have been, I've only been in their skins for at most four months - never a year and a half.”
- Her next high profile movie was in the same year – Star Trek, in which she played the role of Nyota Uhura. The movie was a huge box office success grossing $385.7 million.
- Zoe had never seen the Star Trek (1966), but accepted the offer, after J.J. Abrams had complimented her previous performances ("For an actor, that's all you need, that's all you want: to get the acknowledgment and respect from your peers.").
- She once said “I am actually! I'm very proud to say I am a geek. But I'm kind of a cool geek. I grew up in a very sci-fi home so I've seen a lot of sci-fi movies, from Dune (1984) to Alien (1979), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), *batteries not included (1987)... All these films I go crazy for. But never "Star Trek".”
- Her mother was a huge Star Trek fan and often sent her voice mails with advices during the filming.
- As a part of the preparation for her role, she even met with Nichelle Nichols who played the same character on the original Star Trek.
- However, she knew about the Vulcan salute, around 5 years before, when she played the role of Dolores Torres, a big Star Trek fan, who loves going to conventions dressed as Yeoman Rand.
- She won the Best Ensemble Cast award by the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards for her performance.
- In June 2010, Zoe was engaged to her longtime boyfriend Keith Britton, an actor and CEO of My Fashion Database, whom she met at 2000. The relationship ended after 11 years and the duo announced that they have separated in November 2011.
- She was voted #3 on the Maxim magazine’s Hot 100 Women list in the year 2010.
- Following her success in the “Star Trek” and “Avatar,” Zoe had a number of movies including the “The Losers” (2010), “Takers” (2010), “Death at a Funeral” (2010), “Burning Palms” (2010), “The Heart Specialist” (2011), “Colombiana” (2011), “The Words” (2012).
- She received the Choice Movie Actress – Action by Teen Choice Awards and the Favorite Movie Actress Drama/Adventure by ALMA Awards, for her performance in the movie “Colombiana.”
- She was also nominated for the award of Best Actress for various movies including “Guess Who,” “The Losers,” “Death at a Funeral,” and even the “Colombiana,” for her performance.
- She started dating Bradley Cooper from December 2011. This relationship lasted for just a year and ended in January 2013.
- In 2013, she reprised her role as Uhura in the “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the sequel to the 2009 “Star Trek,” which was a huge box office success with a total of $228,778,661. The sequel is the highest-grossing film of the franchise.
- The same year, she voiced for her own character – Uhura in the “Star Trek” video game.
- Her next role as Gamora in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy,” in the year 2014, was praised by all. The movie was the third-highest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- She started dating Italian artist Marco Perego in March 2013, and married him secretly in June 2013. The couple hyphenates their surname – Zoe Perego-Saldana and Marco Saldana-Perego.
- Zoe and Marco have twin sons - Cy Aridio Perego-Saldana and Bowie Ezio Perego-Saldana, born on 27, November, 2014, in Los Angeles.
- Zoe has a number of movies in the pipeline, including the “Avatar” and “Star Trek” sequels. She is starring in the upcoming biopic of Nina Simone, playing the role of Nina that is slated for a 2015 release.
- She said in an interview that she turned down the role of Nina Simone for almost a year. Before coming aboard, and that she took it up only because people, whom she considers as "more physically right for the part" have passed on the project. She added that "I did give it thought, and at the end of the day, I'm proud of my decision."
- Zoe is one of the celebrity supporters of FINCA International that works to bring financial stability and jobs to low-income communities.
