Saldana On 'Star Trek XI'

Zoe Saldana brought Uhura to life with the help of Kirk and Spock.

As reported by io9, Saldana did several things to prepare for her role as Uhura. "[I used] reference pictures, speaking to Nichelle Nichols, talking a lot to J.J. [Abrams]," she explained. "After I met Zach Quinto and Chris Pine, that changed a lot, talking to them. For some reason, Zach's Spock and Chris's Kirk brought out my Uhura. The conversations and sharing the knowledge of 'Star Trek', it was all really good. And I saw all the physical things that were important about her that the fans need. It was a mix of all of that."

The physical things included the famous miniskirts of the original series. "After watching the show, those skirts were pretty short," said Saldana. "If you made them any shorter, it would be a t-shirt. I think they're [Paramount] going to be happy. But the funny thing is, I don't think we went far enough."

Working with the original actor who portrayed Spock was "mind-boggling," according to Saldana. "Leonard is the classiest artist I've ever met, by far," she explained. "He has such grace and his energy and his approach are amazing. After all these years and he just puts on his Spock shoes and transforms into Spock. When his character comes to life it blew everyone away. When I heard Nichelle was on the set I nearly died. I'm sure for Zach it was the same. You are trusted with this precious stone and you have to babysit and make sure you deliver it properly because it was created way before you. And it's going to be living way after, so you need to deliver. That responsibility was kind of humbling."

Saldana was a casual fan of Star Trek, having only seen a handful of episodes. Her favorites were The Savage Curtain and "The episode where Kirk and Uhura have that kiss." (Plato's Stepchildren). Plato's Stepchildren impressed her "...because of what that kiss represented at the time as well. I spoke to Nichelle about it," said Saldana. "She talked about how that work was very dear to her and how they had no idea how big it was going to be. Back then they had no idea that Star Trek was going to be what it is now. They were just artists doing a show that was putting money their pockets, as artists they were working, and they were very grateful to be doing that. She also said as artists, you always live way ahead of your time, so it wasn't a big deal for her. They were aware of what the world was like, but they didn't know it was going to stir up so much."

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