Zoe Saldana is no stranger to playing different life forms from other planets in movies. She famously played Neytiri in 2009's Avatar, and you wouldn't recognize Saldana as the character because she is transformed into a blue warrior from another planet. Saldana has since moved from the color blue to green in MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy. She plays the green-skinned alien assassin Gamora and has fast become a fan-favorite among Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel fans. But is her transformation as Gamora the same as when she transformed into Neytiri? Here's how Zoe Saldana transforms into Gamora.
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00:00Zoe Saldana's convincing turn as the green-skinned alien assassin Gamora made her an immediate
00:05fan favorite in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, and the adopted daughter of Thanos
00:09plays a key role in the massive superhero crossover Avengers Infinity War.
00:14It takes a lot of work to transform Saldana from All-American actress to otherworldly
00:18badass, and it begins well before she ever sits down in the makeup chair.
00:22The Gamora Regimen
00:24There's always a certain amount of physical preparation involved for a major role in a
00:28Marvel film, but to reprise her role as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Saldana
00:33had to go a little above and beyond.
00:35In November 2014, the actress gave birth to twins, and subsequently dropped 70 pounds
00:40after embarking on an exercise regimen that would make Drax cry.
00:43She had difficulty bouncing back at first, starting off with simply taking walks and
00:47eventually working up to a brutal routine of squats, planks, lunges, and Pilates, combined
00:53with regular cardio.
00:54Although she's 80 percent gluten-free and leans heavily on eggs, vegetables, and greens,
00:59she insists she doesn't follow a strict diet.
01:01As she put it in a 2015 Facebook post,
01:03"...I am going to remove the word diet from my life.
01:06I'm going to remind myself that it is not about losing weight, it is about being healthy,
01:10feeling healthy for the rest of my life."
01:13Head on
01:14Saldana famously played another colorful alien in 2009's Avatar, but in that case, she got
01:19off easy, since her entire character was digitally rendered.
01:23So it may have come as a bit of a surprise to Saldana the first time the makeup department
01:26working on Guardians of the Galaxy told her that they'd need to make a full cast of her
01:30head.
01:31The procedure looks pretty grueling, especially if you're claustrophobic.
01:35No CGI required
01:37The head cast allows effects artists to exercise great attention to detail when designing Gamora's
01:41facial appliances and makeup.
01:44This is necessary because, in contrast with her Avatar role, there are exactly zero computer-generated
01:49elements to Gamora.
01:50According to Guardians 2 makeup designer David White, prosthetics made from silicone are
01:54sculpted for her cheeks and forehead, the latter of which gives her a new brow line.
01:58The pieces take two to three hours to apply and about 30 to 45 minutes to remove.
02:02Her prosthetic forehead actually has a scalp piece that runs underneath her wig.
02:07That's right, she also has to wear a wig, so that even the edge of her hairline and
02:10her part line are green.
02:11Of course, the prosthetics are only the beginning.
02:15Five-hour job
02:16As with any paint job, Saldana gets multiple complete coats of primer before makeup artists
02:21get down to the business of greening her up completely.
02:24A green base comes after the primer, followed by three more layers which are airbrushed
02:27on.
02:28This is done to get as close as possible to a natural tone.
02:31It all meant a grueling five hours on the makeup chair for the first Guardians film,
02:35but only four hours for the follow-up.
02:36"...We shaved off an hour from the first movie, so I appreciated that."
02:42Label check
02:43Surprisingly, virtually all of the brands used to turn Saldana into Gamora are mainstream,
02:48commercially available products.
02:49White and his team seem to be particularly fond of MAC, a popular brand that's used for
02:53both the initial layer of primer and for the green base that's applied before the airbrushing
02:58begins.
02:59Products from Skin Illustrator and Aqua are used for the airbrush job, and her eyeshadow
03:03is a careful blend of several MAC products.
03:05Her nail polish is from Sympho Colors, and her green lipstick is from high-end brand
03:09Kryolan.
03:11Not easy being green
03:12Of course, it took a great deal of time and consideration to arrive at the right shade
03:16of green for a character that would also be spending a lot of time in front of green and
03:20blue screens.
03:21White and his team needed tons of tests to nail down the right tone, and then they were
03:25tasked with using the array of products to faithfully recreate that exact tone day after
03:29day for the duration of the shoot, one he describes as multi-layered with at least three
03:34complementary tones running through it, in addition to Saldana's natural skin tone.
03:38If it all seems like a lot of trouble, well, it is.
03:41But if Marvel Studios wants us to believe that a raccoon can talk, then it's certainly
03:45not about to cut corners to convince us that a stunning alien assassin can be green.