After last year’s Avatar and Star Trek, Zoe Saldana continues her streak of guy-friendly films as tough-as-nails Aisha in The Losers.
And as much as she’d like to play something softer some day, the New York native is more than happy to kick a little butt onscreen. “Hollywood has made a living out of portraying women to be such canker sores. We just have to be rescued all the time because we’re so incompetent,” Saldana says.
“I grew up in Queens in the ’80s, where women were the caretakers and they were the soldiers. I’m in that phase right now, so until I burn that, then I’ll be the damsel in distress. But, right now, I like holding the gun. I like participating in the saving of the day. I think it’s really sexy.”
The Losers required Saldana to team up with co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan for both adrenaline-filled fight scenes and a steamy love scene, which she didn’t mind at all, she says.
“It helps that Jeffrey was such a gentleman and so respectful because trust me, as a woman, try doing that with a fricking prick,” he says. “It’s not a good day at work. You’re the only one that’s naked and you have to act like you’re not aware that you’re naked. And then, not only that, you have to flip your hair and have an orgasm. So, when you work with a good director and a good actor that makes it seem just like a regular Tuesday, then love scenes are like any other fight scene. They’re just awesome.”
Being the only woman in the cast, Saldana knew there was a lot of pressure on her.
“You have twice as much work to do because you don’t want to be singled out. You’re already the only girl. So if you’re the one that says, ‘I can’t do this,’ or whatever. It’s going to be, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s wimping out because she’s a girl,’” she says. “I like being around men. I’ve always felt like I can hold my own.”
That male-friendly attitude extended to off-hours activities as well, she admits, especially with the cast and crew on location in Puerto Rico.
“I’m a beer-and-wine kind of girl and I like to unwind with the boys,” she admits. “We were staying at this awesome hotel in San Juan and the crew, the team, the cast, we would all just go there and unwind, having sangria or a shot of whiskey or whatever, and you just hit the casinos for two hours and then you go to bed and you study your lines.”
