Anyway, Zoe has been everywhere recently promoting her new film, Colombiana, which looks like a straight-up La Femme Nikita rehash and nothing to write home about.
Meanwhile, everyone, including undoubtedly Zoe’s PR team, seem to be trying very hard to position the former Na’vi love interest as the heir apparent to Angelina Jolie’s red-hot, ass-kickin’ film legacy.
From September’s GQ:
Cataleya Restrepo is the lethally sexy hit woman in Saldana’s latest gig, Colombiana. For the film—in which her character avenges her parents’ murders with machine guns, explosives, and, memorably, a toothbrush—she underwent combat training with the stuntman who turned Matt Damon into Jason Bourne. This was fresh off her turn as a mercenary in The Losers and before that as a Pandoran in Avatar, for which she mastered archery and Wushu. All of which has made her the ass-kickingest female star since Angelina Jolie. [Ed. Emphasis mine.] Like Jolie, Saldana’s physicality— all fluid angles and long lines—is part of what makes her so much fun to watch; before the bad guys are finished staring, they’re already dead.
Saldana’s action roots run deep. The actress, 33, grew up partly in the Dominican Republic, where she learned to climb mango trees and gut fresh-caught fish. She remembers herself as “a feminine tomboy. I had my plastic swords, my ninja stars—but I still wore lipstick.”
Okay, so, maybe we can blame GQ for drawing the comparison here, but what about all the times Zoe herself decided to do a little name dropping?
“I’ve always gravitated toward the Sigourney Weavers, the Linda Hamiltons, the Angelina Jolies,” the New York-born actress tells Details magazine.
“I just love strong women that are in tune with their bodies — that don’t just use their bodies as sex tools. I’m very dominant — feisty. I’m not a man-hater, just a very proud woman.”
And:
“I love actresses like Angelina and Jessica [Biel]. They’re very agile, they incorporate their bodies with their characters and they pick women who are very strong. I really dig that.”
Clearly Zoe admires Angelina, and clearly she’s hoping to emulate her to some extent — given the roles she’s chosen and the manner in which she’s presenting herself to the press. So I gotta ask, why in the world is she now claiming to be “uncomfortable” with all the Angie comparisons?
Zoe Saldana cements her status as the “it” butt-kicking girl in Hollywood playing a revenge-seeking assassin in the new action flick “Columbiana.” Saldana has now shown us her not-to-be-messed-with moves multiple times in movies like “Avatar” and “Star Trek.”
In fact, Saldana’s badass beauty roles have many critics positioning her as the “new Angelina Jolie,” a comparison that makes her slightly uncomfortable.
“If I think about it in that fashion than yes (it’s scary,) I wouldn’t want to think about it in that way,” Saldana told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column at the “Columbiana” premiere in Los Angeles this week. “But I have been inspired by amazing actresses that have taken amazing risks and opened amazing doors, and I am a product of that and I am honored to be included in a group of women that have defied their own gravity. Besides playing amazing character roles they also have an amazing agility to do action.” [Ed. Emphasis mine.]
Okay, first? Somebody get this woman a thesaurus. Second, what’s with the feigned modesty all of the sudden? Zoe’s clearly been trying for years to put herself in this position, but now that people are finally starting to connect the dots themselves she’s “scared” by the comparison? It’s not like I expect her to come out and say that she’s gunning to replace Queen Angie, but why not skip the false modesty bit and just say accept the compliment gracefully?
Oh yeah, I forgot. “Grace” in all its forms left Hollywood a long time ago. And now we’re left with ass-kickers, sexpots, and 9-foot tall blue people with giant cat eyes.
Lucky, lucky us.
