BEAUTY issue
aRUDE comment
ONLINE content
ARBITERS
Questions for Stephen Knoll
A Girl's Best Friend
BON APPÉTIT
Questions for Nobu Matsuhisa
Questions for Tony Esnault
the new Le Cirque interview Iké Udé
BUSINESS OFF THE WALL
Questions for Nicholas Callaway
Questions for John Hunt
FASHION
Chinatown photography Norman Watson
Passions of Rihanna photography Iké Udé
KULTURE & ART CINEMA
Dominique Swain Lolita Has A Tattoo interview Brandon Judell
Jared Leto My Bashed-up Life On Screen interview Brandon Judell
Zoe Saldana No Regrets interview Brandon Judell
KULTURE & ART PHOTOGRAPHY
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders portraits backstage at Olympus Fashion Week interview Valerie Steele
Francesco Clemente Impermanence of The Self interview Johan Falkman
Roger Szmulewicz Looking at Pictures interview Parker Stephenson
aRUDE comment
beauty_issue_zsaldana.php
ONLINE content
ARBITERS
Questions for Stephen Knoll
A Girl's Best Friend
BON APPÉTIT
Questions for Nobu Matsuhisa
Questions for Tony Esnault
the new Le Cirque interview Iké Udé
BUSINESS OFF THE WALL
Questions for Nicholas Callaway
Questions for John Hunt
FASHION
Chinatown photography Norman Watson
Passions of Rihanna photography Iké Udé
KULTURE & ART CINEMA
Dominique Swain Lolita Has A Tattoo interview Brandon Judell
Jared Leto My Bashed-up Life On Screen interview Brandon Judell
Zoe Saldana No Regrets interview Brandon Judell
KULTURE & ART PHOTOGRAPHY
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders portraits backstage at Olympus Fashion Week interview Valerie Steele
Francesco Clemente Impermanence of The Self interview Johan Falkman
Roger Szmulewicz Looking at Pictures interview Parker Stephenson
ZOE SALDANA no regrets
interview Brandon Judell
Zoe Saldana photography Oliver Upton
click image to enlarge
Brandon Judell: Several of your roles both in Haven and in Guess Who have dealt with you being in interracial relationships. And in Constellation your estranged parents (Billy Dee Williams and Leslie Anne Warren) were in an interracial marriage.
Zoe Saldana: Yes…
BJ: What's your take on the topic? Truthfully, in Haven your screen dad's objections seem to stem more from economic class differences: he owns boats, Orlando cleans them.
ZS: That's one of the reasons why I identified so much with the project, because [the director/writer] Frank E. Flowers is from the Caribbean, and my family is also from the Caribbean, even though I was born here in the States. And I'm also sort of a product of a lot of interracial communions. That's the way I was brought up: in a very colorful home. I guess caribbean life is a mixture of everything. It's very African influenced and very European as well. And aboriginal. One of the things so clear to me about Haven was that it understood that the Caymans were islands where all these things came together— living in paradise.
BJ: You were selected as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People en Espanol.
ZS: Yes.
BJ: Well, to me that's an obvious choice. But when you look into the mirror, can you tell that it's obvious to the rest of us?
ZS: Oh, dear. I wish I stay pretty long enough to have a long career. But it's not the type of the thing I see when I look in the mirror. It's pretty much like: "Oh, my hair is a mess." It's certainly something to feel blessed for. And I appreciate it, but it doesn't drive me.
BJ: There's no doubt that if folks wanted good genes, and they could be sold, they would try to purchase them from your family.
ZS: Well, thanks. I'll tell my mom that. (Laughs.)
BJ: You started out in a theater that sounded like a neighborhood community project. You were starring in anti-drug musicals?
ZS: Yes. I started out on stage as a dancer, a classical ballet dancer, for ten years. And then in high school I moved on to doing theater with an improvisational company. We toured all over Europe and here in the States, anywhere from hospitals to shelters and jails to schools. It was such an amazing program for my younger sister and I to be part of. We became peer educators. It was really amazing, all of us being city kids.
ZS: I am a believer. I am a faithful person. I do believe in fate. I believe that if you're looking for something, and it?s looking for you, it'll find you. I also believe a mother?s instinct can hardly ever go wrong. Mothers have this maternal instinct—natural, biological, whatever—to take care of their children, and to keep them away from harm. So my sisters and I are very grateful to my mom because you never know. My father died when we were very young, and my mom was alone, and all of our family predominantly lived in the Caribbean, and she just knew. She knew that it would have been challenging, much more challenging, to raise three girls in a very challenging neighborhood on her own.
BJ: Getting back to your film Haven for a second, what is Orlando like? Do you see why he's such an idol? Or, in your eyes, is he just a normal guy on the block?
ZS: Orlando is a very committed, hard-working actor, and he's very dedicated to his craft. The one thing that I know about Orlando—that I love so much from working with him—is that you can count on him for anything. Orlando never forgets his lines or his blocking. You can trust him. He's also a very sweet person, very humble.
BJ: You were in Crossroads with Britney, and you've said you probably wouldn't be here now if it weren't for that. To quote you exactly, "Without Crossroads, Drumline wouldn't have happened. And were it not for Drumline, then Pirates… ." And so forth. Are you surprised how your career has gone? When Crossroads came out and was blown out of the water by critics, did you say to yourself, "Oh my God, what is this going to do to me"?
ZS: To be quite frank with you, once I really dug down into the bottom of soul, I really didn't care, because a bad critique wasn't going to take away from the reality that it was such a great experience to do that film. For the viewer, there's one experience, the experience that everybody?s going to see on the screen. But for the actors, it's not only that. There's also the experience of making the film. So then even if a film bombs, you feel like you've succeeded because you've worked with incredible people. Everything happens for a reason; I'm not a person to regret things.
interview Brandon Judell
Zoe Saldana photography Oliver Upton
click image to enlarge
Brandon Judell: Several of your roles both in Haven and in Guess Who have dealt with you being in interracial relationships. And in Constellation your estranged parents (Billy Dee Williams and Leslie Anne Warren) were in an interracial marriage.
Zoe Saldana: Yes…
BJ: What's your take on the topic? Truthfully, in Haven your screen dad's objections seem to stem more from economic class differences: he owns boats, Orlando cleans them.
ZS: That's one of the reasons why I identified so much with the project, because [the director/writer] Frank E. Flowers is from the Caribbean, and my family is also from the Caribbean, even though I was born here in the States. And I'm also sort of a product of a lot of interracial communions. That's the way I was brought up: in a very colorful home. I guess caribbean life is a mixture of everything. It's very African influenced and very European as well. And aboriginal. One of the things so clear to me about Haven was that it understood that the Caymans were islands where all these things came together— living in paradise.
BJ: You were selected as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People en Espanol.
ZS: Yes.
BJ: Well, to me that's an obvious choice. But when you look into the mirror, can you tell that it's obvious to the rest of us?
ZS: Oh, dear. I wish I stay pretty long enough to have a long career. But it's not the type of the thing I see when I look in the mirror. It's pretty much like: "Oh, my hair is a mess." It's certainly something to feel blessed for. And I appreciate it, but it doesn't drive me.
BJ: There's no doubt that if folks wanted good genes, and they could be sold, they would try to purchase them from your family.
ZS: Well, thanks. I'll tell my mom that. (Laughs.)
BJ: You started out in a theater that sounded like a neighborhood community project. You were starring in anti-drug musicals?
ZS: Yes. I started out on stage as a dancer, a classical ballet dancer, for ten years. And then in high school I moved on to doing theater with an improvisational company. We toured all over Europe and here in the States, anywhere from hospitals to shelters and jails to schools. It was such an amazing program for my younger sister and I to be part of. We became peer educators. It was really amazing, all of us being city kids.
I believe that if you're looking for something,
and it's looking for you, it'll find you.
BJ: After your father died, your mother took you and your
sisters back to the Dominican Republic. You once said, if you had stayed in
your old neighborhood, Lord knows what might have happened. Do you believe in fate?
ZS: I am a believer. I am a faithful person. I do believe in fate. I believe that if you're looking for something, and it?s looking for you, it'll find you. I also believe a mother?s instinct can hardly ever go wrong. Mothers have this maternal instinct—natural, biological, whatever—to take care of their children, and to keep them away from harm. So my sisters and I are very grateful to my mom because you never know. My father died when we were very young, and my mom was alone, and all of our family predominantly lived in the Caribbean, and she just knew. She knew that it would have been challenging, much more challenging, to raise three girls in a very challenging neighborhood on her own.
BJ: Getting back to your film Haven for a second, what is Orlando like? Do you see why he's such an idol? Or, in your eyes, is he just a normal guy on the block?
ZS: Orlando is a very committed, hard-working actor, and he's very dedicated to his craft. The one thing that I know about Orlando—that I love so much from working with him—is that you can count on him for anything. Orlando never forgets his lines or his blocking. You can trust him. He's also a very sweet person, very humble.
BJ: You were in Crossroads with Britney, and you've said you probably wouldn't be here now if it weren't for that. To quote you exactly, "Without Crossroads, Drumline wouldn't have happened. And were it not for Drumline, then Pirates… ." And so forth. Are you surprised how your career has gone? When Crossroads came out and was blown out of the water by critics, did you say to yourself, "Oh my God, what is this going to do to me"?
ZS: To be quite frank with you, once I really dug down into the bottom of soul, I really didn't care, because a bad critique wasn't going to take away from the reality that it was such a great experience to do that film. For the viewer, there's one experience, the experience that everybody?s going to see on the screen. But for the actors, it's not only that. There's also the experience of making the film. So then even if a film bombs, you feel like you've succeeded because you've worked with incredible people. Everything happens for a reason; I'm not a person to regret things.
