By Robin Rowe 

Zoe Saldana in Avatar in digital form

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/19/2009 – “I was almost naked for three days, digging and climbing and muddy like a dead rat,” says Avatar star Zoe Saldana who with other principal cast members trekked with director James Cameron to Hawaii as a substitute for the environment envisioned for Pandora. “I was missing creature comforts, and I was like, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ And Jim said, ‘Oh come on, Neytiri, suck it up!’” Saldana, who recently starred as Uhura in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, stars in the role of the powerfully sexy blue Avatar alien Neytiri.

Hawaii became a rehearsal for the experience of the cast and filmmakers at the Los Angeles performance capture stage Volume, a converted aircraft hanger so large it was used to motion capture live galloping horses, stunts requiring elaborate wire rigging, and aerial dogfights between aircraft and flying creatures.

Zoe Saldana in Star Trek as Uhura

“On this bare stage, which had no sets, we had to act as if we were in Pandora’s mud, water, humidity, trees, elevation…everything,” says Saldana. “Being in Hawaii gave us a mental imprint on which we could draw when we had to simulate an action on the virtual stage.”

“Zoë captured every aspect of the character I envisioned,” says Cameron. “It always boils down to this question, is it a good story? Ultimately, the discussion is going to be about the characters, alien and human, and their journeys.”

Written by James Cameron 15 years ago as an 80-page treatment, Avatar is the story of a handicapped ex-marine sent to exploit the riches of the faraway planet Pandora without regard to the consequences to its native inhabitants, one of whom he falls in love with.

Sigourney Weaver in Alien in 1986

James Cameron has a history of creating strong female characters in his films, Terminator’s Sarah Connor, Titanic’s Rose DeWitt Bukater, The Abyss’ Lindsay Brigman, and True Lies’ Helen Tasker. However, it’s the character of Ripley from Alien who became the template for modern action heroines, although few remember the role was originally conceived and written for a man. Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley more than twenty years ago, is reunited with Cameron on Avatar. Weaver plays the role of Grace Augustine, a scientist who runs the Avatar program to enable humans to adapt to the planet Pandora.

“Grace is trying to create a bridge of trust with the Na’vi but she keeps getting sabotaged by the soldiers on the base,” says Avatar star Sigourney Weaver. “It’s hard to play action heroes. You have to be very specific about your approach. People think that action movies are all about physicality. They’re not. You have to have the other ‘lives’ going on at the same time. You have to endow the character with so much specificity.”

Rebecca Romijn in X-Men

“Neytiri was the most physically demanding role I’ve ever done,” says Saldana. “I trained for months before production to capture the character’s grace and power. Neytiri is sexy and cut, long and lean. And the performance was all me.” Saldana’s training included riding, martial arts and archery. Cameron says he admires Saldana’s combination of delicacy, fierceness and physicality developed through years of professional dancing. Saldana first came to prominence for her performance in the dance film Center Stage.

 The blue-skinned girl in X-Men was Rebecca Romijn as Mystique. Working with blue co-stars is not always trouble-free. When Romijn filmed her fight scene with Wolverene, she threw up blue (from the chemicals in her make-up) all over Hugh Jackman.

When Gene Roddenbury needed an Orion slave girl for the original Star Trek pilot, it was done with makeup. The film lab, unaware the girl was supposed to be green, color corrected her back to normal skin tone, to the puzzlement of the producer and make-up artist. In Avatar there’s no make-up, the blue alien is created using computers and performance capture cameras that map each actor’s motions and expressions onto the digital characters.

Susan Oliver in Star Trek TV pilot

Avatar grossed $27 million in its first day at the box office, placing it in the realm of the action film 300 that opened with $28 million. 300 went on to gross $465 worldwide. With an estimated budget of $230 million, Avatar needs that level of success to break even. Cameron’s last feature film, Titanic, made more than $1.8 billion in worldwide box office after its release in 1997.

Avatar

• Release Date: December 18th, 2009 (USA)
• Running Time: 160 min.
• Distributor: 20th Century Fox
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking