See Zoe Saldana's Intense Makeup Preparation For Gamora In Guardians Of The Galaxy

The life of an actor is often viewed as being a glamorous affair. Quite often that is absolutely true. Sometimes, however, they do suffer for their craft. Case in point, one Zoe Saldana. She has become one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood in recent years. This doesn’t mean her life is always sunshine and rainbows. Her makeup preparation for Guardians of the Galaxy is significantly more intense than we would have guessed. Note to the claustrophobic, you may not want to look at this.

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What you see here is the creation of a full cast of Saldana’s head. Once completed it will give the makeup department the ability to create the various prosthetics required to turn Saldana into Gamora when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 begins filming in Atlanta. With the number of alien creatures who need to be created for the film, it’s likely that other actors like Dave Bautista and Karen Gillan are required to go through the same process. Chris Pratt gets to skate because he’s just human, while Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are able to avoid it since they’re never actually on screen. Some guys have all the luck.

There’s also a possibility, due to the cast's bright green nature, that the cast is designed to be able to more easily add digital effects to Saldana herself. Essentially it’s a green screen for her face. This might help answer the question regarding Karen Gillan’s hair. Several months ago she implied she may not need to shave it off to reprise her role as Nebula. If they’ve found a realistic way to do it digitally, this may be the reason she can save her lovely locks.

The actresses looks really uncomfortable here and we really can’t blame her. We hope this stuff is designed to dry quickly. Otherwise, she had to sit there, not moving, for quite some time while the cast formed around her. The only thing not covered here is the end of her nose so that she’s still able to breathe. Honestly, if they are in need of a couple more alien ideas they could do worse than just putting somebody in the cast and sending them on set. It’s a fairly terrifying image. It makes one wonder if she’d rather be filming Avatar instead, where her character is simply created digitally. It probably saves a lot of time in the makeup chair.

Guardians of the Galaxy has been a hot conversation recently due to the "big reveal" earlier this week of apparent news regarding who the father of Pratt’s character, Peter Quill truly is. That rumor was shot down hard by director James Gunn later the same day. With the movie going into pre-production expect more rumors to begin to circulate and the film gets revved up to start filming.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.