Zoe Saldana Revealed That She Was Told To Change Her Name Early In Her Career, And That It Was "Poor Advice"

4 years ago 5

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“That today is advice we consider poor."

And if things had gone differently, there's a chance we wouldn't even be calling her "Zoe Saldana" at all.

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In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zoe revealed that a previous manager had encouraged her to change her name for acting work.

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Zoe says she was offered the advice to change her name around the time she was making the 2000 teen drama Center Stage.

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“When I did Center Stage, I remember being discouraged by my management at that time to use my name,” she explained.

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“But their intention was never for me to stop being who I am. They celebrated who I was.”

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Zoe explained that her manager's reasoning was that she herself changed her name while performing as a singer in the 1960s. "[S]he said it’s what everybody does," she explained.

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“That today is advice we consider poor, but that was her doing the best that she wanted for me. But I still knew that I liked my name.”

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After all, what is a Zoe Saldana by any other name?

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Read the entire interview here.

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