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An ‘Avatar’ Reunion: Kate Winslet and Zoe Saldaña on Growing Frustrated With Blockbusters, ‘Redefining Femininity’ and Why ‘Lee’ Couldn’t Be Directed by a Man
Kate Winslet and Zoe Saldaña discuss 'Emilia Perez,' 'Lee' and the 'Avatar' franchise for Variety's 'Actors on Actors.'
Zoe Saldaña and Kate Winslet connect easily, as colleagues who haven’t seen each other in a while often do: They worked together on James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which was released in 2022, and will also appear in next year’s third film, “Fire and Ash.” Saldaña had created the role of Neytiri in the first “Avatar” in 2009, and Winslet — a Cameron veteran, of course, from “Titanic” — joined the ensemble as the character Ronal, a shaman and warrior. Winslet recalls the warm environment Cameron established during the films’ rehearsal period, and “that sense of collaboration and willingness to share and listen and to invite ideas.” Saldaña agrees, and says, “It’s crazy what you can do when you’re given an unlimited amount of resources to put a character together. Speaking about Cameron and the Na’vi, who in the “Avatar” movies are the embattled native people of Pandora, she adds: “It’s so beautiful how he totally gave us free agency to build the Na’vi people from scratch with him.” Not that there wasn’t competition on set — addressing Winslet, Saldaña says with a laugh: “You have to be in the room every time he talks about you.
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