Zoe Saldana Talks State of Latinos in America, Nina Simone Biopic: Nina Deserves Better

Saldana is set—along with her sisters Cisely and Mariel—to begin creating digital content for Awestruck, a network geared toward women and the “millennial mom” that will include scripted and non-scripted programming as well as documentaries and other shows. She talks about speaking to the Latino audience and the misconceptions of doing so:

The reality is that every network is like [in a Valley Girl accent], ‘How do we target the Latinos?’ But it’s not about Latinos. It’s about America. So the content won’t be en espanol. Latinos aren’t into that. We’re no longer the ones that are just fresh off the boat. We’re just as much attached to our nation as we are to our parents’ culture. We don’t speak Spanish only. We don’t watch telenovelas. But if you translate a telenovela, give it an American flavor, and keep the Latino essence, like Jane the Virgin or Yo soy Betty, la fea, then we’ll watch it and make it a number one.

Saldana also talked about preparing for her lead role in the yet-to-be-released Nina Simone biopic and the unfortunate drama surrounding the film:

I read as much as I could and spoke to as many people who knew her, who interviewed her. I listened to her voice, to her tone. She was angry, and rightfully so. She was a black woman born ahead of her time. Her soul, her spirit was never able to accept or adapt to the heartbreaks that life was giving her. Those are means for insanity. She was bipolar, and at that time, very little was known about bipolar disorder. A lot of people were self-medicating through substances, and she was doing it with alcohol. I wanted to understand all those things, and see what that was going to bring out of me. I never wanted to judge her.

I needed to walk her path. As a woman, it wasn’t difficult to empathize with another woman. But I needed to be very isolated. I moved out of my house for three months. I wasn’t really talking to anybody that I knew. I just needed to be all things Nina. It was so intense, and everything happened really fast. The people behind the project weren’t my cup of tea. The director was fine, but there was a lot of mismanagement, which is why we’re still here three years later. And I’m still trying to fight with everybody to get the movie finished. Nina deserves better.

-@ATLMJfan87