Aliens have long been the primary subject in countless pieces of entertainment across mediums. They can be lovable, like the titular wrinkly otherworldly visitor with healing abilities in Steven Spielberg's 1982 classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. They can be a murderous, terrifying entity like the mysterious titular shapeshifter in John Carpenter's 1982 science fiction horror masterpiece The Thing. Or they can be something in between, as is the case in another Spielberg flick, 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Though the aliens in these films are artificial in nature, other movies feature aliens portrayed by human actors. Of course, playing an alien can be incredibly difficult. An actor may need to master an artificial language, and delving into a character's mind with an otherworldly set of cultural considerations and morals is a daunting task.
Zoe Saldaña, over the course of her acting career, has portrayed a handful of aliens and, as such, has spent more than her fair share of time sitting in makeup chairs. Two of her alien characters have made Saldaña one of the most successful actors of all time from a box office perspective. She has even appeared in three of the five highest-grossing films of all time. In James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar, she played the Na'vi warrior princess Neytiri. She also reprised her Guardians of the Galaxy role as Gamora in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Here is why Zoe Saldaña is a perfect alien actor.
Portraying the Powerful Warrior Neytiri in the Avatar Franchise
Though it has been 13 years since the first Avatar was released, the film's first sequel is just around the corner, and James Cameron has already made it clear that he plans to make a five-film series out of the plights of the Pandoran natives.
Neytiri is essential to the Na'vi's eventual victory over the colonial human presence on Pandora. She is a talented fighter, and she is the one who trains Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to fully utilize his Avatar form, as well as teaches him how to assimilate into Na'vi culture. Despite being initially skeptical of Sully and his employment with the Resources Development Administration, Sully, a former marine, proves himself to be a formidable warrior. While Sully is in his Avatar form, he and Neytiri begin to form a relationship. Saldaña's brilliant performance allows audiences to see the depths of the internal struggle between love and her culture.
Given the fact that Saldaña needed to wear a motion capture suit to portray the CGI-enhanced, nine-foot-tall alien, it is incredibly impressive that she still managed to bring such a depth of emotion to the character. In the highly-anticipated upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, set to be released in December 2022, Jake and Neytiri will have a family, allowing audiences to see an entirely different side of Neytiri's personality.
Playing the Brave Warrior and Guardian Gamora in the MCU
Gamora could very well be one of the most compelling characters in the MCU. Raised to be a ruthless killing machine by the villainous Thanos, she eventually leaves that life of villainy behind and teams up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Though Gamora is more serious than her fellow Guardians, with the possible exception of Dave Bautista's Drax, Saldaña is a talented enough actor to make still humorous moments happen, primarily due to her initially hostile, insult-laden relationship with Chris Pratt's Peter Quill, or Star-Lord.
Through layer upon layer of dark green makeup, Saldaña delivers a powerful performance as her character seeks to move on from her horrible childhood and become a force for good on a galactic scale. Her past forever haunts Gamora, and Saldaña manages to show this trauma in her stoic performance while still allowing for brief moments of emotional vulnerability to crack through the facade of the stone-faced assassin.
In Avengers: Infinity War, her adopted father, Thanos, throws her to her death in order to obtain the Soul Stone. Losing this beloved character was gut-wrenching for MCU fans, and many hope that the increasingly multiverse-orientated MCU will somehow allow Saldaña to reprise her role.
After having portrayed so many enthralling extraterrestrials, it is a wonder that the actor is still able to play human characters. Zoe Saldaña's myriad high-profile portrayals of aliens are sure to make other actors green with envy, though it is difficult to deny that she has proven herself to be uniquely suited to the task. If she never again signs up to sit in a makeup chair and be adorned with prosthetics, she has undeniably cemented herself as the great alien actor of all time.