Zoe Saldaña On Which Sci-Fi Language Is Easier—Star Trek’s Klingon Or Avatar’s Na’vi? – TrekMovie.com
In 2009 Zoe Saldaña appeared in two big sci-fi movies: as communications officer Nyota Uhura in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and as the Na’Vi alien Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar. She has since appeared in two additional Star Trek movies, but the first follow-up to Avatar didn’t arrive until this weekend. This gave her an opportunity to compare the different fictional languages of the two franchises.
Klingon or Na’vi?
Danish movie journalist and friend of TrekMovie Johan Albrechtsen sent us a video clip from his Moovy TV interview with Zoe Saldaña (and Sam Worthington) for Avatar: The Way of Water. As a Trekkie, not only did he wear a Spock T-Shirt (which got an instant Vulcan salute from Saldaña), he decided instead of the usual Star Trek 4 update, he would ask which language was more difficult for the actress to master: Klingon (which she spoke in Into Darkness) or Na’vi from the Avatar movies. See her response below, along with Worthington jumping in.
Saldaña calls Trekkies “lovely”… feels grateful for association with space franchises
A couple of weeks ago, Saldaña appeared on Hot Ones, the popular talk show where guests answer questions while eating escalatingly spicy wings. Early on, Saldaña was asked if there are differences between Star Trek fans and Marvel fans and said, “Trekkies take it far more serious, they’re lovely,” adding that the optimistic vision of the future gives the franchise “a very special place in people’s hearts.”
Saldaña will be returning to the Marvel Universe as Gamora in May 2023 for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. A comment she made last month about feeling “stuck” in various franchises got a lot of attention, so earlier this week she clarified (via Deadline) how she feels grateful for all the opportunities the various film franchises have given her, noting that it has been hard to balance the work since starting a family, but saying “I’m happy in space, I’ve always been happy in space. I relate to people who love space as well. I relate to men like James Gunn and James Cameron and J.J. Abrams.”
Zoe Saldaña sets the record straight about her feelings filming franchises pic.twitter.com/Ds5g8k4LKV
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) December 13, 2022
Avatar 2 out now
You can see Saldaña (and Discovery‘s Michelle Yeoh) in Avatar: The Way of the Water, which opened on December 16.