Zoe Saldana Says This Kissing Scene Of Hers Was Totally 'Ridiculous' To Film

Actors are often tasked to portray several scenarios for their projects. Sometimes it can include doing intimate moments on-screen. While it may seem romantic on the outside, filming such scenes can be quite challenging for the actors. Kissing scenes require a delicate relationship between the actor's professionalism and chemistry on-screen. One actor that has done several kissing scenes through the years is Zoe Saldana. Despite filming tons of kissing scenes, the one with Sam Worthington for "Avatar" stood out the most for the wife of the artist Marco Perego.

James Cameron's sci-fi epic "Avatar" became a revolutionary film in the industry. With its groundbreaking visual effects and immersive storytelling, it's no surprise that the film did great at the box office. But behind the mesmerizing beauty of the film, lies the technical challenges the cast and crew had to face. Saldana said that she had a hard time filming for film's kissing scene due to the technology they were using at the time. In a 2009 interview with Parade, she said that the experience was just "silly" and "ridiculous."

While making "Avatar," James Cameron decided to utilize a technology that would perfectly shoot sequences using motion capture and 3D technology. This would require every cast member to film in an empty green screen studio while wearing some specialized suits. Their performances would later be digitally transformed to create out-of-this-world imagery.

During the promotional tour for the film "Avatar" in 2009, Zoe Saldana told Parade what it was like filming the kissing scene with Sam Worthington while wearing the suits. She detailed the difficulties they encountered while filming, she explained, "We were doing performance capture for the computers, so Sam and I had on these helmets with a boom and a camera at the end of it and we would get tangled up before our lips could touch."

Cameron got frustrated at the pair's inability to film their kissing scene seamlessly. She continued, "Jim would yell, 'Cut. The actors are stuck again. Can't you guys be more careful?' We were like, 'Damn it. It's not that easy.'" Despite difficulties, Saldana and Worthington found humor in the situation, she said, "It was a riot and it was silly. Sometimes we'd just start laughing. The entire time we were all blushing. It was just like, 'Okay, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done.'"

More than a decade after the release of the first "Avatar" film, the franchise is still thriving and raking in cash at the box office. Although it used to be a source of frustration for the actor back then, Zoe Saldana admitted that the film's setting is a significant part of her career. She told Vogue, "It's the best form of acting that I've done in my career, because it brings it back to a childlike form of pretending. When we were children, you would create these wonderful imaginary worlds, and you could spend hours getting lost in your own imagination. That's what we were doing with all the preparation that James allowed us to have."

Aside from the technicalities of the film's setting, the cast and crew of the film also had to dive into a new set of challenges. For the "Avatar: The Way of Water," Saldana said they had to perform scenes underwater. They worked with a diving instructor to learn how to hold their breath so they can perform under the tank where the performances were captured. Saldana further added, "We studied [diving] theory and had to do these breathing exercises, so that by the time you're ready to go and dive, you have enough oxygen in your bloodstream. You're training yourself to let go of that panic when you go underwater. And once you put that into practice, it's kind of liberating."