Recently we had the opportunity to discuss some hot topics with Zoe, and here’s what she said:

1. Who inspires you most?

My family, my mother and sisters have all inspired me. They have all been supportive and by my side through everything. I learn from them and they are my best friends.

2. If you could give yourself 5 years ago some advice, what would it be?

I would probably say even if things don’t always go your way, still believe in yourself and keep trying to move forward.

3. What did you think you would be doing now when you were 18?

I was a trained dancer for years but knew that I had this desire to continue performing and loved the creative outlet of acting. I always wanted to do something that I could express myself, challenge myself, and do something creative.

4. What advice do you have for aspiring actresses?

I think I would say that if you really want it badly then believe in yourself, be strong, keep learning and don’t be afraid to take chances.

5. What’s the worst advice you’ve ever gotten?

That I should just stay in my comfort zone.

6. What’s your biggest turn off?

I think ignorance is a huge turn off.

7. One night stands? Yay or Nay?

Nay- I am relationship type of person.

8. What was the Avatar audition like?

It was a definitely a process, but so amazing. I met with James Cameron, Jon Landau after they had seen the tape and called me in for a meeting. I had a lot of discussions with James, did some movement work, choreography, etc. and was so beyond excited, thrilled when I received the call I was cast. To be able to work with James Cameron and Jon Landau was a dream come true because they are so talented and so very smart.

10. Are there any roles you would never take?

If a role is compelling, well written with a talented team including director, dp, etc. and I can really grow from the role, I would consider it.

11. You play a lot of strong, beautiful female characters, is that something you’re consciously aware of or more of a reflection of who you are as a woman?

I love to be able to play strong characters that are strong minded, compelling and have a heart. I have always admired actresses like Sigourney Weaver when I saw Alien, as well as Linda Hamilton from Terminator because they were powerful and didn’t need to be the damsels in distress. They are the type of roles that cross gender barriers and are strong, kick ass and heroic if it was either a male or female playing it. I feel lucky the roles I have played have been strong women as I am drawn to that type of role.

12. You were in one of the biggest movies of all time, yet you’re never in the tabloids? How have you managed to avoid that?

I like to keep my personal life personal and when I am not shooting I am a homebody.

13. How has your daily life changed since Avatar?

I think that Avatar may have created more awareness as the film garnered a lot of great publicity- I feel truly fortunate to be associated with Jim and Jon’s masterpiece.

Check out some of our favorite Zoe Saldana pics below!

initiating the gallery...

I met with Broadway.Tv in the press room for Oleanna where cameras and reporters interviewed Julia, Bill and director Doug Hughes, firing questions about the intricate plotlines and the dynamic relationship between the two characters. “Oleanna” only has two actors on stage for the entire play and the high drama between the two characters was a primary focus for all the reporters. Both Stiles and Hughes likened the performance to “a sporting event,” noting that working on the play is so powerful, the emotions are akin to an adrenaline rush.

I was able to sit down with Julia and chat with her one-on-one and capture her insights on the play, college and… Sesame Street?

5 Questions We Ask Everyone:

1. What’s the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
The most trouble I’ve gotten into? Oh my God. Well you know, I’m very good at… not getting caught. It’s not that I’ve not gotten into trouble, I’m just good at not getting caught.

2. What are some things you can’t live without?
Running and swimming. I love exercise. It helps me blow off steam, helps to calm down.

3. What’s your motto/advice you live by?
I wish I had a motto. I don’t know. It’s like one of those things I’ll think of later.

4. What’s your favorite song to belt out at the bar/in the car/for karaoke?
I’m obsessed with “I Feel it All” by Feist and of course “1, 2, 3 ,4″. I just saw that she did that for Sesame Street. It’s really awesome.

5. Ten years from now you will be….
I’d love to be still working, acting, doing what I love. You know what’s funny? I can’t even think beyond March, until this play closes.

5 Questions Just for Julia

1. Tell me about going to school at Columbia; what was it like going to school in the heart of New York City?
I graduated in ’05. I really enjoyed Columbia, it was a great education and I had some amazing professors and also a lot of time we could incorporate our education into the city. For Art History we could actually go to the Met and see the paintings that we were studying. I was an English major, but there were quite a lot of core requirements like Art History.

2. In the play “Oleanna” there’s a strong focus on the tension, some sexual, between your character, a college student, and her professor. Would you give any advice to girls who may find themselves in a similar tense situation with a professor?
I think one of the relevant themes that this play calls into question is, what is the purpose of higher education? How useful is a college education? What are you paying for? A lot of times in college, it’s set up so students forget that they’re actually the ones employing their teachers so they have a right to be demanding.

3. Did you ever have an incident with a professor that was similar to this?
I think nowadays there are policies in place and rules for awareness of student-teacher conduct. Such as, if a student goes to see a professor in their office, the door has to be open and there are policies in place to make sure nothing happens. We try and deal with a lot of those in the play because it was written about sixteen years ago, so we tried to update it a bit.

4. A lot of the roles you portray are very strong female roles; I read somewhere that you’re a “self described feminist.” What does that word mean to you?
I don’t even know what that word means anymore. It’s gotten this negative connotation and almost implies being “anti man” and I don’t think that plays into my characters, they’re just very strong girls.

5. Are there any parallels between Kat from “10 Things I Hate About You” and Carol, your character in “Oleanna”?
I think Carol has a lot more rage inside of her and is a lot more provocative.

Now, here’s the good news. Though they’re not easy to come by, great female characters do exist: tough, smart, funny, complicated women, who give normal girls something to shoot for, or at least allow us to indulge in some quality couch time without sacrificing our souls to the dark altar of the Chick Flick.

Here, a roundup of recent favorites.

4. Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars – the sharp, sarcastic teen detective at the center of the WB’s much-beloved (and cancelled) series by the same name – triumphed over her show’s painfully cute premise to become one of the best female characters in recent years, due in large part to a fantastic performance by Kristin Bell. The writing didn’t hurt, either; Veronica worked several startlingly dark cases, including her own date rape, but she was never portrayed as a victim, and the show’s witty, self-aware dialogue kept it from dissolving into melodrama.

3. Lee Holloway, Secretary

At first glance, a woman who lets her boss slap her around doesn’t seem like a feminist role model. As always, however, it’s the thought that counts. Lee Holloway likes to be slapped – a lot – and she won’t take no for an answer. At its heart, Secretary is a story about a girl coming to terms with her sexuality: as she enters into an S/M affair with her boss, a closeted and guilt-drenched sadist, Lee becomes ever more determined to get off in the way that suits her best, social conventions be damned. What’s not to admire in that?

2. Hayley Stark, Hard Candy

Female rage is taboo. Angry women – particularly angry women with power – threaten the existing social order so profoundly that they’re rarely tolerated in life, and almost never permitted to triumph in fiction. However, what with women being human and all, we do occasionally get a mite peeved, and many of us have a soft spot for girls who get away with murder.

For a demonstration, measure your friends’ reactions to Hayley’s gory revenge against her pedophile stalker in Hard Candy. Men, in my experience, tend to react with horror and thinly veiled pity. Women have a different reaction: a hard-edged smile, laughter, and a quietly muttered “oh, hell yeah.”

1. Starbuck, Battlestar Galactica

In the 1978 series Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck was a tough, reckless, cigar-chomping fighter pilot. In the updated remake (which enters its final season this year), Starbuck is a tough, reckless, cigar-chomping fighter pilot who also happens to be a girl. Therein lies the charm.

Kara Thrace breaks all of the unspoken rules about female characters in television. She drinks grown men under the table. She starts (and wins) fistfights. She hooks up with guys to blow off steam, and she does not stick around to cuddle. The best – and most subversive – thing about all of this is the fact that she’s never, ever defined, punished, or limited by her gender. In most shows, Starbuck would be a lone female trying to make it in a boys’ club. In Battlestar Galactica, the boys are in Starbuck’s club – and if they want to compete with her, they’ll have to catch up.

[Have any of your own favorite female characters? Let's hear 'em!]

In a recent New York Times article titled “Students of Virginity,” about college students who choose to abstain from sex, one founder of the Harvard abstinence club said, “We wanted to make abstinence look fun; interesting.” OK, I understand how abstaining from sex can be safer than actually having sex. But abstinence is fun? I wasn’t aware.

Choosing to abstain from sex until marriage is a personal choice you make, and I’m not quite sure I understand the need for abstainers to work on convincing others that their way is best. On Valentine’s Day 2007, members of the True Love Revolution sent out valentines to freshman girls saying, “Why wait? Because you’re worth it.”

So, you’re telling us we need to save ourselves for marriage because we’re worth a lot…and by not waiting, we’re lessening our worth? Whoa. Will men not want to be with us because we’re, gasp, tarnished? This year, they sent the valentines to both freshman women and men. So, now it seems we’re all lessening our worth by having sex.

Janie Fredell, president of the True Love Revolution at Harvard asks, “Why bond yourself so intensely when you’re not sure you’re going to spend the rest of your life with this person?” which is, to some, a valid point. But to others, sex does not necessarily mean intense boding. And in this day and age, let’s be honest, marriage does not always mean forever. Is there ever a time when you can be sure you’re going to spend the rest of your life with a person? Should we be so cautious in life that we pass up every chance to love as fully as we can because, this might not last forever? Or should we live in the moment, enjoy our sexuality smartly, and learn to deal with our broken hearts and bruised egos?

Then again, Fredell seems to have a way of dealing with her sexual urges that the rest of us could maybe learn from. According to the article, “Whenever sexual urges struck…she was able to manage them by going on a long run and assumed that everyone should be able to do the same. ‘The biological drive can be overcome,’ she said. ‘It’s not like it reaches a peak, and you have to go out and have sex.’” Wow. I wasn’t aware you could repress your sexual urges and didn’t absolutely need to have sex. Maybe I should try that whole running thing when the urge strikes me.

According to Fredell, “It takes a strong woman to be abstinent, and that’s the sort of woman I want to be.” I tend to be more on the side of Harvard student and Sex and the Ivy blogger, Lena Chen who says, “For me, being a strong woman means not being ashamed that I like to have sex…to say that I have to care about every person I have sex with is an unreasonable expectation. It feels good! It feels good!”

Really, I think being a strong woman means making your own choices. Being a strong woman means having sex when you choose to and not when some guy is pressuring you to. And being a strong woman is choosing not to have sex because you don’t want to, not because some organization is pressuring you.

I would never look down on someone’s decision not to have sex and hope nobody would look down on my decision to have sex. And really, if you have ways of showing me not having sex is fun, by all means, bring them on.

Just as soon as I get back from my run.

Several of the contestants are profiled on the pageant’s website. Their stories speak for themselves.

Miss BENGUELA: An unemployed 32 year old widow and mother of three. She sells tomatoes when she can get them. Her landmine accident occurred while she was tending fields—at the age of eight.

Miss BIÉ: A 30 year old unemployed single mother of four who dreams of being a nurse. While tending fields at the age of 15 a landmine exploded.

Miss CUANDO CUBANGO: A 30 year old single mother of two who dreams of becoming an economist. A landmine went off while she was tending fields at the age of twelve.

Miss CUANZA SUL: A 25 year old who ran into a landmine while escaping an attack from soldiers at the age of 15. She dreams of becoming a nurse.

Miss CUNENE: A 26 year old single mother of two who dreams of becoming an Interior designer. A landmine went off while she was tending fields at the age of four.

Miss HUÍLA: An unemployed 25 year old single mother of three whose dream job is “Whatever she gets”, she ran into a landmine at the age of 15 while escaping solders attacking her village.

Miss MALANJE: A 33 year old unemployed mother of 4, she ran into a landmine at the age of 23 while escaping UNITA soldiers.

Miss MOXICO: A pregnant 19 year old whose dream job is to be a “Boss”. Under occupation she states that she “Can do everything but there is no job”. A landmine went off while she was tending fields at the age of 10.

Miss UÍGE: A 22 year old single mother of twins she dreams of being a street vendor. A land mine debilitated her at the age of 12.

Miss HUAMBO: A 27 year old single mother of three, she dreams of becoming a clothing designer. At the age of 14 a landmine went off while she was walking home from school.

The Miss Landmine Survivor pageant coordinators seek to draw attention to this global issue in need of immediate attention.

According to the website of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) at the end of 1990s there were between 15,000 and 20,000 new casualties caused by unexploded landmines each year.

In Angola, thanks to a 27-year long civil war, one in every 356 residents of Angola is an amputee as a result of landmines.

The Miss Landmine Survivor Contest also highlights the plight of landmine victims. Landmines can cause blindness and the loss of multiple limbs. It is essential that these victims be reintegrated into their community both socially and economically.