01x04 - Gamora

[bunniefuu]

SALDANA: I've felt like
an underdog my whole life.

But I was never tortured by it.

I wasn't defined by gender.
I wasn't defined by color.

I could be anything
I wanted to be.

I wasn't really interested
in being a princess.

I didn't want to wear the
princess costume for Halloween.

I was always the ninja.

I was either a white ninja or
a black ninja or a red ninja.

It was like every Halloween, in
a succession of eight Halloweens,

I was just a ninja.

I loved action movies
and science fiction.

I loved icons like Whoopi
Goldberg and Sigourney Weaver,

who at the time,

were the only females
that I knew of

that were driving the
action-driven storylines.

Come on!

And I felt like I could
see myself in them.

WOMAN: (SINGING) I'm unstoppable

I'm a Porsche with no brakes

I'm invincible

Yeah, I win every single game

I'm so powerful

I don't need batteries to play

I'm so confident

Yeah, I'm unstoppable today

Unstoppable today
Unstoppable today

Unstoppable today

I'm unstoppable today

Gamora is the most dangerous
assassin in the universe.

And she's a k*lling machine.

(SCREAMS)

With a heart of gold and
a true sense of justice.

Gamora is incredibly gifted
in the art of violence.

(GRUNTING)

She can make you
fall in love with her

and slice your throat
in the same movement,

which is pretty awesome.

No!

What the hell?

I know who you are, Peter Quill!

PRATT: But as we peel
the onion back further

through the course of Guardians
1 and into Guardians 2

and into the Avengers films, you
realize that underneath it all, she's,

in her own way, on a quest
to find out who she is.

When Thanos took my homeworld, he
k*lled my parents in front of me.

The one thing that the
Guardians each have in common is

that they have experienced loss.

Ronan m*rder*d my wife, Ovette,

and my daughter, Camaria.

SALDANA: Drax has
lost his family.

So did Nebula.

Quill has lost his mother.

Groot lost his planet.

Rocket has been experimented
on like a lab rat.

And Gamora lost her family.

(SCREAMING)

Mother!

The real moral spine of the
team has always been Gamora.

Because she's the one who has the
backstory of having been raised

in such a incredibly
traumatic and hurtful way.

Gamora. Surgically modified
and trained as a living weapon.

The adopted daughter of
the Mad Titan, Thanos.

PRATT: Gamora was
raised by Thanos

and has a tragic backstory
of pain and misery.

What's wrong, little one?

Where's my mother?

As a child, Thanos kills
her parents in front of her,

which is an incredibly
traumatic thing.

- (PEOPLE SCREAMING)
- Uh-uh.

Thanos kind of adopted her

in a kidnapping way.

She's a lone wolf,

so she had to be strong
at a very young age.

So, she grows up not really
having trust in people.

I wanted Gamora to
carry a kind of pain,

a kind of melancholy that comes
with the loss of a loved one.

(SCREAMS)

That was relatable to me.

Mother!

That was why I wanted to
say yes to playing Gamora.

My sisters and I went through
a lot of hardships growing up.

We were victims of loss because
my father had passed away

when we were very, very young,

and we needed outlets
to deal with our grief.

So, my older sister
began painting.

My younger sister
became a great debater.

And I started dancing.

Dance gave me the ability
to communicate emotion

when words were not around,
when words were not available.

Dance, you're able
to interpret loss.

It gave me the ability to
imagine the unimaginable.

It was a blank canvas
in a vast dark space,

where I can be anything.

As I grew up,

dancing gave me an outlet
to deal with the fact that

I was being massively
bullied at school.

It became like my weapon.

And I feel that my background
as a dancer shaped who I am,

not only as a person, but also,
it gave me the ability to pursue

a very, you know, great
career, in action movies.

I wouldn't be as experienced
in action movies,

or even in science fiction movies,
had I not had a foundation in dance.

Dance gave me the ability
to approach characters

also from a physical point,
not just an internal one.

(GROANS)

GUNN: Zoe was my number-one
choice for Gamora

because she was a
fantastic action hero

and that's what we needed,

was somebody who had her depth
and had the magic in the eyes.

Which is what I
look for in actors.

Somebody who you can look at their
eyes and they always feel present.

SALDANA: There's
always a lot of me

that I unconsciously bleed into
the characters that I play.

When I was putting
Gamora together,

I knew she was gonna be
doing a lot of action scenes

and I just didn't want her to look
like the typical martial artist.

And I thought, "What
can I add to her?"

The sword is her weapon of
choice. It's a very classic

and old form of fighting.

So, I remember thinking,

I want her to move in a way
that she's inviting her enemy

to come towards her like the way a
bullfighter invites the bull to come.

The way that bullfighters
move is quite graceful.

It's a dance that he does,
you know, with the bull.

It's a duel.

And I thought, "Oh, my God, this
is Gamora. This is who she is."

Nebula.

I don't think that I would be here
today if it wasn't for my sisters.

We grew up with the
kind of solidarity

that one needs to have in
order to survive adversity.

We were always together

and we didn't like each
other at times, (CHUCKLES)

but we loved each other.

As Gamora, I'm confronted
with a sister, Nebula,

who is completely the
opposite of who I am.

I'll be free of these
shackles soon enough,

and I will k*ll you, I swear.

Nebula's extremely complicated.

There's a lot going
on there, emotionally.

And I'd say that's not totally
typical for a superhero.

I'm a daughter of
Thanos. Just like you.

Gamora and Nebula are both dealing
with, you know, being brought up

by an incredibly a*usive
supervillain, Thanos,

who basically took
these children

and tried to turn them into warriors
as extensions of his own ego

and was incredibly cruel
throughout the process.

As a woman writing a
character like Gamora,

I was channeling a lot
of the sibling rivalry

that I have with my own sibling.

(GRUNTS)

And so one of the things that
I really wanted to explore was

the idea that Nebula and Gamora were
purposely pitted against each other

by this father figure.

Well done, daughter.

Because he knows how powerful they are
and that if they were ever to team up,

they could bring him down.

You alienated my favorite
daughter, Gamora.

He pitted the siblings
against each other.

Gamora always won because she was better
at fighting, she was the golden child.

Nebula, I think, was just
so resentful towards that

that she took it personally.

Like a personal attack, almost.

(SCREAMS)

I have never had any type of experience
where I've had to share the attention

with a sibling or
felt overlooked.

And so, I kind of had
to really do my research

and look at sibling relationships
'cause they're so complex.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

It was a dream come true to get
to see a fight between two sisters

because in reality, when I was
like seven or eight years old,

fighting with my sisters, in my mind,
that's exactly what it looked like.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

Or that's what I wanted to
be doing to them, you know?

But these sisters
love each other a lot.

That's why the
hate is so strong.

The rage, the anger, is just so
evergreen, especially in Nebula.

As a child, my father would have Gamora
and me battle one another in training.

Every time my
sister prevailed...

my father would replace a
piece of me with machinery...

claiming he wanted
me to be her equal.

From Nebula's perspective,

I would say that she's
extremely angry at Gamora

and Gamora has purposefully
won all of these battles

every single time just
to make her look worse

in front of her father.

There was a scene between Nebula and
Gamora where they have a big argument

and they're sort of
shouting at each other.

And then, it becomes
emotional all of a sudden.

It takes a quick turn and
you get a little insight

into how Nebula
feels towards Gamora.

I don't need you always
trying to beat me!

I'm not the one that flew across
the universe 'cause I wanted to win!

Do not tell me what I want.

I don't need to tell you
what you want! It's obvious!

You were the one who wanted to
win. And I just wanted a sister!

GILLAN: And she's
suddenly really vulnerable

and I think Gamora
looks at her like,

"Oh, I didn't understand
that about you before,

"but I'm seeing a
different side of you."

"You're not just angry, you're
really hurt and fragile."

And that was a breakthrough
for them as sisters.

You were all I had.

But you were the one
who needed to win.

Thanos pulled my
eye from my head...

and my brain from my skull...

and my arm from my body...

because of you.

GUNN: That moment when
Nebula looks at Gamora

and tells her that she didn't want
to win, she just wanted a sister.

I think that hits
home with Gamora.

And at the end of Guardians
2, when Gamora hugs Nebula,

and...

Nebula is just sitting there
being hugged, not knowing what...

(CHUCKLES)

So weird.

She's just sitting there being hugged
and then Nebula just takes her hand

like this and she
just hugs her back.

Just hugs her sister
back for a moment,

and that moment to
me is so important.

It's just so
important, like, to me.

That moment which is only in
a wide frame that we see it

is as momentous as
anything I've ever shot.

Because that is a person
starting to accept love.

You will always be my sister.

Those are amazing scenes.

Those are amazing moments to
experience with someone like Karen.

To build that trust with an
actress on set was amazing because

up until then in my career,
I have very few moments

with female actresses

because I tended to be the only
female actress in a whole cast.

I didn't ask for your help.

And yet, you always need it.

So having someone like
Karen play Nebula,

I didn't care if we didn't
get along on camera.

I got to be with a sister off
camera and that was wonderful.

People think that
we hate each other.

- We don't. We're so close, look.
- At all.

We're super close.

We look like twins.

Whee! (LAUGHS)

GILLAN: We've really bonded, I think,
just over playing these sisters

and spending so
much time together.

Zoe has been a mentor for me. She's
done more of those big movies.

I was completely new to it

and she took me in under her
wing like her little sister.

I wasn't like a really sporty kid at
all. I was more like a theater nerd.

And so when I signed on, I
was not good at fighting.

It involves a lot of stunts to
play Nebula, so many fight scenes.

I had to train for two months to
lead up to this fight sequence

between Nebula and Gamora,
which was really amazing.

I felt like I was in action
hero boot camp or something.

And Zoe really helped me
with my stunt performance.

I'm really tall and
so I, like, hunch,

and she stopped me from
doing that for a start.

And then, she taught
me how to run.

So I would also do this weird
run with my fists clenched,

thinking that looked cool, and
she's like, "Open them up."

And she taught me how
to throw a mean punch.

And then, I suddenly wasn't
terrible at fighting anymore.

I was, like, pretty good.

(GRUNTING)

We become sisters.

I feel like we've just had
so many emotional experiences

during these scenes that we can't
help but feel bonded to each other.

We can stop him.

She definitely inspires me to
fight for what I believe in more

as a person and as a performer.

She knows what she wants.

She has her own mind and
she really speaks it.

It's very empowering to watch and
I definitely feel like I've learned

how to conduct myself.

Go!

(BOTH GRUNT)

He's too powerful. I can't!

I believe in you.

Sleep!

SALDANA: I do believe that
Gamora and Nebula feel kindred

to Mantis very, very early on.

The difference between Mantis is I
don't think that Mantis has experienced

the level of violence that
Gamora and Nebula did.

MANTIS: Ego found me
in my larva state.

Orphaned on my home world.

He raised me by hand,
and kept me as his own.

The Guardians of the Galaxy
movies are very touching

because it talks about the
family that you choose.

GAMORA: He's our friend.

All any of you do is yell at
each other. You are not friends.

You're right. We're family.

We leave no one behind.

KLEMENTIEFF: I love how resilient
the female characters are.

I love Karen.

She's so different from
her character in real life.

I would like Nebula to go to Chuck
E. Cheese and take down Thanos.

(YELLS)

(BOTH YELL)

And Zoe, she's
incredible. (LAUGHS)

I remember going to
a Halloween party

after Guardians of the Galaxy,
the first one, came out,

and I wanted to
dress up like Gamora.

So, I bought some green
makeup and a red wig.

I don't know, it didn't look
great, but I wanted to be Gamora.

(LAUGHS)

And then I booked the role of
Mantis, so it's kind of funny.

Like Mantis, I've
always felt different

and it's very freeing to
play this kind of character

because I get to be strange, to be weird,
and to go back to being a kid, basically.

My dad was a diplomat so I
traveled a lot when I was a child.

So, that's why I think I got
attracted to escapism and traveling

and never staying
in the same place.

That's what I love in movies.

To be, like, taken away and be transported
in this crazy, imaginary world.

Can I pet your puppy?
It is adorable.

Yes, please.

- (SCREAMS)
- (LAUGHS)

That is called a practical joke.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I liked it very much.

KLEMENTIEFF: What I love
about the character of Mantis

is she's an empath.

She has a superpower that
when she touches someone,

she can change their
feelings, their emotions.

(GRUNTS)

Who are you people?

You are scared.

(BREATHING NERVOUSLY)

I'm very emotional, too,
so that, I feel that.

I feel the empathy for sure.

(BREATHES HEAVILY)

That's what you need to
connect with other human beings

and, you know, to
be a better person

and caring about others is
something that is very important.

Some people lack
empathy for sure.

Some people should be a little
bit more like Mantis, I think.

(GRUNTS)

Sleep.

B-mark.

Quick and efficient.

Yeah. There you go. Cool.

ALONSO: For some of us that have
been doing this for 30 years,

I was always the only girl.

Always.

And I was always the only head of
department for the longest of time.

And I know that if I look
at some of the amazing men

that have carried me
through and taught me,

a lot of them are
struggling with the idea

of having more women on set.

But I know that the importance
of that is that we see things

that other people don't.

When you do an action
movie, it's not just you.

It's a team effort.

MAN: And, action!

(GRUNTS)

SALDANA: It's your makeup artist.
It's your stunt coordinator.

It's your costume designer.
It's your choreographer.

It's your director.
And then, it's you.

So, there's a lot of trust that
happens with one character.

We are passing her around.

I'm a makeup artist for Gamora
on Guardians of the Galaxy.

I was department-heading a
movie called Death at a Funeral

and Zoe was the star in the
movie and we hit it off.

We both spoke Spanish and just connected
and became really good friends.

Gamora was not a person,

a human, that you just paint
green and let's go to sh**t it.

Green paint over a face with,
you know, regular eyebrows,

it just never looks good.

It was gonna look like Halloween
makeup versus something bigger.

I said, "I think that we
should do special effects."

So, we did the whole mold
of Zoe's face and chest.

The special effects makeup department
started working on prosthetic pieces.

We covered the eyebrows
with prosthetic makeup.

SALDANA: It was challenging
because we were trying

to find the right green that
wouldn't put people off,

but was also vibrant
and kind of youthful.

That way, she doesn't
look like a reptile.

She doesn't look so alien-looking
that you can't really find

any kind of connection with her.

It was a fun, but very
arduous, you know,

process that we remember
every step of the way.

(LAUGHS)

Tails mark.

TRAN: We're pushing
more than ever

in the last decade that I've
been at Marvel to really find,

you know, female crew
members behind the scene,

not just in front, but
really behind the scenes.

MICKLE: I come from the indie film world
in New York as a production designer.

There's a ceiling when it comes to
being a woman trying to get these jobs.

Very few women get a chance to
work in this giant franchise arena.

Especially in department head positions
and especially in production design.

And my agent called me and said,

"James Gunn would like to meet with
you for Guardians of the Galaxy 3."

And we had a great meeting.

Then my agent called
later and said,

James would like to
have me come on board,

and I literally
fell off my chair.

And my world changed.
My career changed.

Everything really changed
with that phone call.

And by James deciding to
take a leap on somebody

who didn't have that usual
experience is really what kind of

changed the landscape
for my career,

but I think, also, very
much for art departments

and for these other departments
looking to be more inclusive.

GREENBLATT: My first
day on set was crazy.

I saw Zoe in full wardrobe and
costume and I was just in awe

of how cool she looked,
and her body language,

and how she completely
owned the set.

I was like, "Wow!
She's incredible."

It's like super intimidating
for eight-year-old me,

but she was so welcoming.

And she was so
warm and so sweet.

She's just such a motivating
person to be around.

She's very strong,
and she's very smart,

and I'm like that, too.

I grew up in a house that always
loved everything comic books,

everything Marvel,
everything superheroes.

I think it's cool to see yourself
in your favorite characters.

I love Gamora and she's inspiring
because she never gives up.

I think that's an important message
because if you are a young girl at home,

it kind of gives you hope that you can
see the light at the end of the tunnel

and that you can
become stronger.

As actors, we have the power
to really inspire people.

We do. We have that power.

Every day, I see a woman come up to me
and say that my character inspires them.

My character keeps them going.

They were my character
for Halloween.

They dressed their
daughter as my character.

I never take any of
that for granted.

That kind of visibility
gives them purpose.

(CHUCKLES)

It makes them feel seen
and heard and celebrated.

My name is Priscilla Frederick-Loomis,
and my favorite superhero

in the MCU Universe is Gamora.

Gamora, to me, is just
the ultimate badass.

I automatically connected
with her fierceness

and just her overall
confidence and her struggles.

She doesn't ever back
down to a challenge

and I hope that that's
something I can be.

I became a professional
athlete in 2014

and I represented the country
of Antigua and Barbuda.

And I went to the Olympics,

but didn't get to win
the Olympic gold medal.

And then I was able to
see myself in Gamora.

I saw her struggle and so I
realized that I can be a superhero

even though I've had
a really rough past.

Growing up, it was just
my mom, my sister and I.

And so, seeing that
Gamora was on this journey

kind of on her own and kind
of ripped away from her family

kind of made sense, you know?

I have a very kind of distant
relationship with my father

and I saw that I
could overcome that.

And so, I started my
own organization called

the Priscilla E.
Frederick Foundation.

Our main goal is to assist
single-parent households.

Connecting them to financial
resources, housing, whatever they need.

I wanted to make sure that I did something
that affected the world in a positive way.

Hopefully, I can be that person
that helps the Gamoras of the world

build that bridge and get
them where they want to be.

(BOTH GRUNT)

(SCREAMING)

GUNN: I love uniquely
superpowered characters.

I think, you know, it's
important to tell stories

about all sorts of
different types of people.

I love Nebula

because she really was a
really bad, bad character

in the first movie, and we get
to see her slowly come around.

She has a change of heart and she becomes
a Guardian of the Galaxy down the road.

And I think she's a superhero
in many people's lives.

My name's Angel Giuffria.

I was born missing the
lower half of my left arm.

It's called a congenital
limb difference.

Seeing Nebula onscreen in
Guardians of the Galaxy

being someone who
has a prosthesis.

At one point, she chops off
her hand to do something.

And I was like, "That's me!" Like,
I take my hand off all the time.

So, it's been really
exciting to see such a strong

and powerful and badass
character that, you know,

really pushes and fights
for what she believes in,

because that's something
I've done forever.

Growing up as a kid
with a limb difference,

I think, was difficult
because I felt like I had

to kind of constantly
fight to fit in.

I kind of had to
develop a thick skin.

I had to develop a pretty
good sense of humor,

just to show people that, you know,
having any type of physical difference,

you're still the
same as everybody.

So, I think being
different my whole life has

led me on this path
of being able to say,

like, let me show you
why different is so cool.

Nebula definitely has a lot of anger and
I guess I do resonate with that a bit

because it was so frustrating to have
to convince people that I was okay.

You know, that being
different wasn't bad.

I didn't understand why the
default was that I was wrong,

that my body wasn't right, you
know, for existing how I was.

Seeing Nebula be so confident in
her robot body and going, you know,

"I could kind of make my
arm look like her arm."

So, seeing her onscreen, I was
like, "I wanna look like that."

I think that's what's
important for young amputees,

young people with limb
differences, everyone, really,

to see that we exist in
this dynamic fashion,

that I feel like has
been ignored in media.

The frustrating part is that's
how people know things, right?

If you don't know someone
who wears a bionic arm

or who is an amputee,
why would you know?

So, seeing Nebula, seeing
these awesome characters,

especially in superhero
movies, is so exciting.

Like we get a superhero.

I get to be Nebula.

How do you like the
Guardians of the Galaxy?

(CROWD CHEERING)

(ALL EXCLAIM)

(CROWD CHEERING)

Hail Hail

What's the matter with your head

GILLAN: I think Marvel films are
so successful because they lift us

out of our everyday lives and
put us in a fantastical world

where everything's
extraordinary and amazing.

But underneath all of that
is just really good messages

that we can all connect
to in our real lives.

SALDANA: I dig it. I
like being in space.

I get to play less girlfriends
and more female parts.

More women.

Come and get your love

What? Whoa!

I need a picture right now!

I think that we do have the
responsibility as storytellers

to represent what the
world looks like today.

They're not just, like,
badass and violent, you know.

They're like peculiar and weird
and broken at the same time,

so it feels like we're getting accurate
representation of women in the film.

You walk out into the world and
there's all types of women, and so,

I think it's vital to reflect society,
diversity, you know, all genders.

We just need to reflect the
real society in our movies.

(CROWD CLAMORING)

KLEMENTIEFF: The Guardians of the
Galaxy movies are very touching.

And I find it really beautiful

because you see yourself
represented on screen.

I come out of these movies
feeling more assured,

feeling stronger, feeling more
optimistic, feeling more hopeful,

feeling like, yes, we do
have control of our destiny.

PRATT: I have a daughter now.

She's one year old so I haven't
shown her any Marvel movies yet.

But I like the idea that
one day, we'll watch them

and she can see herself
in these characters now.

She can see Gamora
and Nebula and Mantis.

Something's happening.

I like the idea that
my daughter can say,

"I don't need to be rescued by a
boy, I can rescue the boy myself."

Peter! Take my hand!

- ANNOUNCER: Zoe Saldana!
- (CROWD CHEERING)

WOMAN: You go, girl!

SALDANA: My hope is to be inspired
every time I go to the movies.

And I'm excited to see
more stories of heroines.

Of female heroes.

Because I enjoy this genre,
I enjoy action movies,

I enjoy watching films
with younger audiences.

It makes you feel very excited
and proud of what you're doing.

So let's keep going in this
direction. More, please.

(LAUGHS)