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'THERE'S NOTHING SEXIER'
Zoe Saldana reveals the thing she finds most sexy in men as she reveals how her husband helps to keep her young
Plus, how the star overcame the odds to have a voice in Hollywood
AS one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, Zoe Saldana has become known as the queen of the franchise.
Now the Avatar actress is calling for more females to reach the top in the movie industry, and says of the men who are backing them: “It’s so sexy when a man truly celebrates a woman”.
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Zoe, 45, spoke out while promoting her latest flick Emilia Perez, a musical drama which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in France last month.
The star revealed: “I think that women, we’re going to keep creating stories about us, for us and for the world, forever.
“But we need more female CEOs. We need more women sitting on boards, because those are the gatekeepers. We need the keys that unlock those doors.
“And once those women are there, don’t just be happy then feel so lucky that you’re the only woman sitting at the table.
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“Get three men to get up, get their seats and put three women in there.
“And when I say that, I’m not saying that our growth should be in spite of men.
“I’m just saying that if we have to make room, the ideal thing is bring a chair in and bring another woman.
“And for the men, the ones that are doing it right and making room for women — thank you.
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“It’s so sexy when a man truly celebrates a woman. There’s nothing sexier.
“It doesn’t matter what he looks like. And for the ones that are not, please join. We’re tired of fighting. Let’s just grow together.”
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The man who has Zoe’s back is Italian artist and producer Marco Perego-Saldana, 45.
The couple, who married in 2013, have three sons together — ten-year-old identical twins Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio and seven-year-old Zen.
Zoe said: “I do have a relationship with a man who’s an artist who literally is willing to just pick up and go wherever I need to go.
“Because wherever I go, my children come with me. And he has no problem with that.
“So he’s able to do that because as an artist, he can work from everywhere.
“Marco is my challenger. Marco is the one that every time I kind of go, ‘I think I’m good’. Marco is like, ‘No, let’s do more’. So he keeps me young and I think I keep him young too.”
‘Marco keeps me young’
Zoe has fought and overcome the odds to have a voice in Hollywood.
She was raised in crime-ridden Queens, New York, where her parents emigrated to escape poverty and unrest in the Dominican Republic.
Spanish was the first language spoken at home and her father died in a car crash when Zoe was nine.
She threw herself into dance lessons having discovered a passion for music during time spent in her mum’s Caribbean homeland with her sisters, Cisely and Mariel.
After performing with the New York Youth Theatre, she took on an agent and landed her first movie and television roles in her early twenties.
Zoe received early recognition, appearing in Crossroads with Britney Spears in 2002 before going on to star with Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl in 2003.
I’m very grateful for the journey I’ve had, the opportunities that I’ve been given at a very early age
Zoe Saldana
But it was the 2009 movie Avatar, shot by legendary director James Cameron, that catapulted her to worldwide fame, portraying the indigenous hunter Neytiri.
It was the highest-grossing movie of all time, raking in £2billion at the box office, until it was knocked off its perch in 2019 by Avengers: Endgame — which also starred Zoe.
She said: “I’m very grateful for the journey I’ve had, the opportunities that I’ve been given at a very early age. A little girl from Queens, New York, to be able to be in a James Cameron movie, and for that to catapult me into a full-blown sort of career that continues to educate me.
“I mean, I can only be so lucky. Had I planned this, it would have never happened.
“And I took every opportunity. I opened every door that felt unlocked to me and walked in.”
Telling how Avatar changed her career, the movie beauty added: “I went from just being in small and big productions, but in a very, very small way. Being, you know, this princess from this foreign planet — it reached the whole world.
I went from just being in small and big productions, but in a very, very small way
Zoe Saldana
“I was able to get meetings with producers and directors that I never thought I could ever meet.
“I was being offered roles, where I always thought that I needed to fight and work really hard for them.”
In 2009 Zoe was also selected to play Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek reboot directed by J.J. Abrams.
The movie and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, earned around £400million, which cemented her reputation for having the Midas touch when it came to choosing her roles.
Next came the part of Gamora, in Guardians Of The Galaxy, which became the third highest-grossing Marvel movie behind The Avengers and Iron Man 3.
She also made history as the first actress to feature in four movies that grossed more than $2billion each, including Avatar sequel The Way of Water, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
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So it is no surprise that Zoe was named the second highest-grossing actress of all time behind Scarlett Johansson in April this year.
While her net worth is estimated to be around £30million, Zoe says she uses her instinct to choose roles.
She explained: “I can’t pick a project for any other reason than how it makes my heart beat. That’s my lottery ticket.”
Zoe saw her latest role in Emilia Perez as an opportunity to “branch out” and it “reignited a fire in me that I was the one putting out myself”.
Along with co-stars Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez, Zoe jointly won Best Actress at the 77th Cannes Festival for the crime musical, which brought the audience to tears.
She plays disgruntled lawyer Rita, who assists a Mexican cartel leader to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
Karla, the first openly trans actress to triumph at Cannes, plays gangster Emilia Perez — and the cast, including actor Edgar Ramirez, all saw it for the first time together at the festival — a new experience for Zoe.
She said: “As an artist, I’m never satisfied. I’m really hard on myself, so I’m watching it with such a critical eye. But this film was different. The story was so moving.
“So every time I was watching Karla, or I was watching Selena or Édgar and listening to the songs, I forgot that I was in it. So I was really happy.”
She admits that at times she has self-doubt. Zoe said: “I’m extremely shy. I am in the closet of my mind more than I am interacting with the world. And it is dark in there and it is so f***ing isolating. So I’m tired of that. Then also, I’m a middle-aged woman. I’m 45.
“So immediately there’s this anxiety of, like, ‘Oh my God, my time is up’.
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“I can’t stop dreaming. I just want to continue making art because if I don’t, I don’t know what else to do.
“I still want to grow as an artist. There’s still so much that I want to do.”
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