‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ star Zoe Saldana talks about facing racism

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” star Zoe Saldana, who plays the role of a green-skinned space creature, recently opened up about facing racism. She revealed how her children face racism, and also, talked about how she once used to hear similar remarks about her skin colour while she was in school. She said that she is still discovering how to deal with it.

Married to Italian artist Marco Perego, Saldana has twin sons named Cy Aridio Perego-Saldana and Bowie Ezio Perego-Saldana, born in 2014. In a recent interview, she revealed how her sons have been subject to derogatory comments about their skin colour. Saldana said that these comments not only come from strangers but even her friends.

“I’ve even had friends look at my sons and say, ‘My God, they’re dark’ and I’m, like, what the f*** does that mean? So I’ll have to address that in the future,” she said. The “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” star said that she has also faced such comments during her childhood, and at that time, her mother was very supportive. She uses her mother's words to encourage her children and asks them to not pay any heed to such comments.

“I remember when I was a kid coming home from school and telling my mum, ‘The other kids at school are calling me the n-word and they’re calling me black’. My mum would say, ‘Well, black is the colour of your skin – what do you want me to say?’,” Saldana said.

Saldana added that her mother never tried to make her feel better by putting someone else down. She instead told her to ignore such comments as they wouldn’t affect her as a person. “She simply told me, ‘You’re not black Zoe, you’re not tall Zoe, you’re not skinny Zoe – you’re just Zoe. You decide what kind of Zoe you want to be,’” she told Daily Mail.

Zoe Saldana has been a part of three popular sci-fi franchise in the recent time. She played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in “Star Trek Beyond,” alien Neytiri in James Cameron’s “Avatar” and deadly green-skinned assassin in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Zoe Saldana will next be seen in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” which is scheduled to release in Australia on April 25.

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