Zoe Saldaña says she was 'moved to tears' watching 20 minutes of 'Avatar 2' footage
- Saldaña said she was "moved to tears" watching footage of "Avatar 2."
- "I was speechless," she told journalist Kevin McCarthy.
Zoe Saldaña admits she got emotional while watching footage of the long-awaited sequel to "Avatar."
"I can get choked up just talking about it, because I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second installment, right before the year ended, last year and I was speechless," Saldaña told journalist Kevin McCarthy while promoting her Netflix movie "The Adam Project." "I was moved to tears."
Saldaña plays Neytiri in the franchise, the Na'vi character who educates earthling Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) about her people's ways. Eventually, the two fall in love.
The actress also said that franchise director James Cameron has "cracked that challenge" when it comes to filming parts of the movie underwater.
Back in 2020, Kate Winslet, who stars in the sequel, told The Hollywood Reporter that she had to hold her breath for more than seven minutes to do the underwater scenes.
Franchise producer Jon Landau posted a photo on his Instagram account in March 2020 showing Saldaña, Worthington, Winslet, and new castmate Cliff Curtis in the massive 900,000-gallon performance-capture tank that was built in New Zealand for the sequels.
"Avatar" opened in theaters in 2009 and became the highest-worldwide-grossing movie of all time. (After being topped by "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019, Cameron's movie recently took back the crown.)
Since then Cameron has been working on four "Avatar" sequels. After numerous delays, Cameron said in September 2020 that "Avatar 2" is "100% complete" and that "Avatar 3" is "95%" complete.
"Avatar 2" opens in theaters on December 16.