Zoe Saldana ate green apples to prepare for Elio voice role
Zoe Saldana has revealed that she snacked on green apples to help soften her voice for her role in the animated movie Elio.
Zoe Saldana ate lots of green apples before lending her voice to Elio.
The 47-year-old actress voices the character of Olga Solis in the new Disney Pixar animated film and explained that she snacked on fruit to soften her voice before she worked on the project.
Speaking to Collider, Zoe said: "This is definitely not the first animation that I've voiced, and I feel that I've gotten better at understanding what my voice needs, which is rest the day before and a lot of green apples the day of, because there's something about what green apples do to your palate.
"It kind of softens your taste buds, that way you don't get a pasty sort of sound that, if you're in a booth, can be really loud."
The Oscar-winning star also revealed that she requested to shoot the shouting scenes last so her voice was well-equipped for the emotional scenes.
Saldana said: "Always ask to have all the screaming scenes or lines to be last, that way you get through all the dialogue, all the emotional scenes, and then you get to the ones where you're making a lot of noise."
The Emilia Perez actress revealed that she "incorporated" a lot of her own qualities into Olga and explained that she loves the "natural passion" that goes into making animated movies because it's such a long process to get them to the big screen.
She explained: "For this one, I jumped on board after so many of the components were already there, but we still had enough space for nuances and to improvise some things, so I was able to incorporate so much of who I am into Olga to make her feel authentically me, and I love that.
"It hasn't happened in a long time. But usually I do like the process of it because it gives me the ability to get to know the animator more, to get to know the filmmaker more."
The Avatar star continued: "This is a world where everybody who joins animation is because they have an innate desire, a natural passion to do it, because it is a time-consuming way of telling stories.
"You write something 15 years before, and then you're finally getting to do it, and it takes you five years. And as time goes by, we're able to reduce that time to maybe two years or three years, but it's still a group of people that are coming together to put something together, and I really admire that whole process because it takes dedication, but it takes love."
Zoe revealed that she "collapsed" shortly after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress earlier this year for her portrayal of Rita Mora Castro in Emilia Perez.
She said: "I collapsed right after. I lost my voice within an hour after I won the award.
"I couldn’t stand on those heels that I had. All I wanted to do was crawl in bed and maybe cry. I don’t know why, I needed to cry.
"Your body is running on pure adrenaline, so you know that your immune system is in optimal condition, but once you know you tell your body that it’s over, then everything sort of collapses."
