After a long, long wait, we are now counting down the weeks to James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water. Some of its stars including the beloved Zoe Saldaña who portrays Na'vi native Neytiri have begun making the media rounds in an effort to promote the film. The press tour period is usually a time when fans can get, among other pieces of information, a snippet of the cast's filming experience, and in her latest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Saldaña was generous with the details as she went down memory lane, recounting how her journey to becoming a member of Pandora's blue world began.
Saldaña described her audition as one that initially confused her, and it is not hard to imagine why. While the science fiction genre had in the past introduced us to varying iterations of outer space worlds, there was nothing quite to the degree of the blue world of Pandora in which Avatar is for the most part set. Despite a prior space movie experience with, 2009's Star Trek, Saldaña recalled that she remained confused and grappled with understanding the resultant outcome of her role which was pitched to her as a hybrid of “a warrior princess” and “a robot.” "First they told me that it was like about this robot, this female robot." Saldaña said. "I thought it was like Alita: Battle Angel. But it’s set like in the jungle. And I was like, ‘well, that doesn’t really make any sense. Like a warrior princess was a robot, like a sentient, what is that?’"
However, Cameron, had beforehand, prepared for such reactions, and to get his potential cast past the initial conundrum and into character, the visionary director had in place the best hands to put them through. Saldaña continued; "But Mali Finn, who was the casting director at that time... then, Margery Simkin took the part of casting it, they would sometimes just come in and call me. And I was still living in New York at the time, and they would put me on tape. And sometimes it was like ‘Bring some tight stuff, I want you to climb, and do some cartwheels.’ And I’m like ‘okay.’ So I would come in, it’s like “We’ll, we’ll just play. Let’s move some furniture.’"
While Saldaña lauded the efforts of the crewmen, she also credited her dance background for helping her land the role of Neytiri. Further adding; "I feel like I was able to book the part because of [my dance background]. And then one time, they called me in and I put myself on tape again for them, and they were like ‘just make all these sounds.’ *Tongue rolls* And I’m like ‘well, okay.’ And I’m thinking like James Cameron, a robot warrior princess that’s in the jungle, and I’m doing, R, like *tongue rolls* rolling my Rs, I don’t know what this is, but I dig it." Further discussing her confusion with the film's plot, Saldaña added; "And they gave me the script. And the script was like this thick *gestures about 2 inches with fingers*. They gave me three hours to read it, I took six. Because it was just, all the direction describing the whole world of Pandora was just really bizarre to me."
The actress also touched on a key moment during the auditioning process -- meeting her idol Cameron for the first time, a moment she likened to having her soul leave her body. In the end, it proved to be a rewarding experience for Saldaña as Avatar became a defining moment in her career earning her a well-deserved big break that opened to her the doors of other major franchises including Marvel.
In The Way of Water, Saldaña reprises her role opposite Sam Worthington who plays Jake Sully. The couple will be seen protecting her children and other inhabitants of the Pandoran world from yet another disastrous invasion from a familiar enemy. The Way of Water premieres in theaters on December 16. Check out the trailer below: