Zoe Saldana: I have enough star power now to turn down sexist roles

Zoe Saldana says her growing star power allows her to turn down roles that are “objectifying or gratuitous”.

The actress, 38, reprises her role as Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek Beyond, which is out on July 22, and will appear in the forthcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 and Ben Affleck’s Live By Night. She is also starting work on the three sequels to 2009 epic Avatar.

Saldana, who is mother to twin 19-month-old boys Bowie and Cy, told ES Magazine how she is fighting for gender and racial equality in Hollywood.

She said: “Studios are the ones that are not green-lighting black projects, they’re the ones sending internal emails and laughing. And bullying women and bullying people of colour.

“I am speaking up and I am stepping down as well. Sometimes by saying no [to some roles], you’re helping — you’re contributing to a greater good.” The actress, who is married to Italian artist Marco Perego, 37, said: “Women have been compelled to be quiet for too long. We have to shed light on things that are obviously unfair, uneven, unequal — things that should be illegal.”

She said her “biggest battle” is getting her employers to pay for a full-time nanny, as she spends so much time away from home. She said: “It should not be considered a perk. I’m not asking for a masseuse on set. I’m asking you to pay for my children to have proper care so that I can give your film the proper care it needs too.”

Saldana, who was born in New Jersey to a Puerto Rican mother and a father from the Dominican Republic, said she was disappointed by presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant stance. But she said: “I’m not going to give up on America. I’m raising black men in America. And I need to be part of making sure that the America they’re going to be living in deserves them.”

The actress, who made her film debut in 2000 in Center Stage, a teen drama directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner, said she had no regrets about taking a series of roles in blockbusters. She added: “In a world where there’s so much turmoil, maybe what our children need is to believe in superheroes.” She said she had been left “broken-hearted” by the death of fellow Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, 27, who was crushed in his drive by his own car last month.

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