Zoe Saldana is done with old-fashioned female stereotypes, Latest Movies News - The New Paper
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Zoe Saldana is done with old-fashioned female stereotypes

AMSTERDAM: As green-skinned alien Gamora in Avengers: Endgame, US actress Zoe Saldana hopes she can promote a clear message - that time is up on old-fashioned female stereotypes.

The 40-year-old, who also starred as Neytiri in the 2009 box-office smash hit Avatar and Uhuru in the Star Trek flicks, said she does not like being characterised by her race or sex.

"I am not actively playing a strong woman, I am just playing a whole woman versus something that is just there to be objectified and fill in all the boring spaces in a movie that come from a weak storyline," she said.

"Women are so relevant in life, and in all places, that the logical thing to do is to capture and build them accurately," said Saldana, who was speaking at Chivas Venture, a social entrepreneurship competition in Amsterdam, last week.

Her desire to improve women's equality starts at home, where she has decided to bring up her three young sons - five-year-old twins and a two-year-old - in a gender neutral environment.

"What my husband and I are actively learning every day and practising is how to not run a household like it is a matriarchy or a patriarchy," said Saldana, who married Italian artist Marco Perego in 2013.

She said this involves sharing household duties equally and dismantling any stereotypes, such as mothers as more stern or fathers as more fun.

Born in New Jersey to a Puerto Rican mother and Dominican father, Saldana also wants to tell the stories of Latinos and other under-represented groups in the media through her business Bese, a digital media platform launched last year.

"We are creating content that is American but we are broadening that narrative... and accepting and celebrating the diversity that comes from being a nation that is built on immigration," she said. - REUTERS

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