Zoe Saldaña's First Impression Of Avatar Was A Lot Closer To Alita: Battle Angel

Wind back the clocks to a time before the original "Avatar" changed everything back in 2009, when the blockbuster smash hit first transported audiences around the globe to a sci-fi world they'd never even imagined before while inducing a debilitating case of so-called "Avatar Syndrome" among a not-insignificant number of moviegoers (and inspired a widely-circulated SNL sketch, too). To say that society wasn't quite ready for what director James Cameron had up his sleeve would be putting it mildly, but that doesn't really do justice to the immense challenge of selling various decision-makers on his grand (and expensive!) plan — not to mention the cast, as well.

Considering the degree of performance-capture and visual effects work required to bring Cameron's vision to life, it stands to reason that lead actor Zoe Saldaña wasn't fully certain what to make of this outlandish concept back when she was first auditioning for the role of the main Na'vi character, Neytiri. As straightforward as the plot may be (famously summed up as "Dances With Wolves" in space, naturally), the world-building of "Avatar" and the eye-popping design of the tropical moon Pandora itself would've been all but impossible to describe to others without any proper frame of reference. According to Saldaña, her initial conception of the film mostly included "Alita: Battle Angel," some strange clicking noises, and a whole lot of gymnastics. What else!

Party like it's 2009, folks, because another "Avatar" movie is really, actually, and genuinely about to hit theaters in just a few short weeks. As hard as that may be to believe, especially for those of us who've been tracking the many delays for this long-awaited sequel and its planned follow-ups, it was once even harder to believe that the original would ever become the breakout juggernaut that it was.

Just ask returning star Zoe Saldaña, who recounted her first impressions of James Cameron's then-unknown story for "Avatar" on a recent appearance with Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show." After clarifying that the famous filmmaker isn't exactly in a position to have to pitch his vision to anyone (if anything, it'd be the other way around!), the actor explained her early struggles to grasp exactly what was being asked of her:

"First, they told me that it was about this robot — this female robot. I thought it was like Alita: Battle Angel. But it's set in the jungle. And I was like, 'Well, that doesn't really make any sense.' A warrior princess [who] was a robot, a sentient -– like, 'What is that?'"

As funny as that sounds, it's likely that straight-up disclosing Saldaña would be playing a blue extraterrestrial with a long tail and weird-looking ears wouldn't have made it sound any less silly. But as the actor goes on to describe, that was really only the beginning of how strange the audition process would become.

Later in the same interview, Saldaña revealed some of the more out-there aspects of her initial audition tapes, much of which consisted of being told to, in her words, "Bring some tight stuff. I want you to climb and do some cartwheels." This was in order to show off her physicality in a very physically-demanding role, of course, seeing as Neytiri's activities in "Avatar" run the gamut of flying on winged animals to climbing on and over the massive vegetation of Pandora to taking part in the action-heavy battle scenes. Naturally, Saldaña didn't know about any of that at such an early juncture of the casting process, and was instead forced to trust the casting director and Cameron himself that she wasn't making herself look foolish for no reason.

And then the requests to make weird sound effects came in. According to the actor:

"One time, they called me in, and I put myself on tape again for them, and they were like, 'Just make all these sounds.' I'm like, 'What kind of sounds?' [Tongue rolling sound] And I'm like, 'Well, okay.'

And I'm thinking like, 'Okay. James Cameron, a robot warrior princess that's in a jungle,' and I'm rolling my R's. I'm like, 'I don't know what this is, but I dig it. I dig it.'"

Creating a new world from the ground up, language included, is no easy feat. Saldaña discovered that in the most unconventional way possible, but it's safe to say that it worked out for the best as she's now part of what's likely to become a long-running and even more profitable franchise — barring any unforeseen circumstances, at least.

"Avatar: The Way of Water" comes to theaters on December 16, 2022.