Saldana Prefers The Future
2 min read
Zoë Saldana‘s love of stories set in the future came about as the result of living in a dangerous big city.
Saldana spent part of her childhood in New York City before the family moved to the Dominican Republic after Saldana’s father died in a traffic accident.
“New York wasn’t as safe as it is today,” said Saldana. “So we spent a lot of time in our little apartment. We watched everything. Blade Runner, Aliens, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It made that little space feel so huge for us. It wasn’t like, because you’re girls, let’s watch this boy band.”
Saldana was exposed to Star Trek at a young age, when her family watched it in the Dominican Republic. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were all fans of the show. “I would look over and all these three women were glued to the television, watching the series in Spanish,” she said. “It’s so funny. It was the first series that I would experience vicariously through their eyes.”
But Saldana wasn’t a big fan of the show, feeling that it was out-of-date. Her mother told her that she was missing the point of Star Trek. “My mother told me: ‘You don’t understand’,” said Saldana. “‘Don’t look at the show. Observe the message. Look at all those beautiful colorful people working together in the future. It is possible’.”
Why does Saldana like stories set in the future? “On a personal level, it’s what I like,” she said. “It’s the literature I like to read. It’s not that I’m ahead of my time, but…the future moves at a pace to my liking. It moves me a great deal. It’s so boring to read things that are gone.”
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