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9 Amazing Bodies from Avatar Films

Here's how the Naʼvi stay fit.

Avatar is one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time. And for all the reasons why—the special effects, the love story, the majesty of James Cameron's vision—one often overlooked is the sheer athleticism of the actors. The franchise is about conflicts between humans and an alien race on the planet Pandora, and much of the action includes the Na'vi or humans running, jumping or flying. How does the cast that includes A-listers like Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver stay so fit? Read on.

1

Zoe Saldana

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Zoe Saldana plays the female lead character, Neytiri. She shared her diet secrets with Byrdie. "Nutrition is super important in my life. It always has been. These days, I'm really heavy into having a green juice in the morning because it's hard for me to have a balanced meal sometimes as a working mom. I'm a professional; I'm working all the time. I want to make sure that I get my greens in, so I do that every day, and it helps me a great deal. But I try to be balanced. I don't like hearing, 'Oh, I'm doing this diet, or I'm doing that diet.' I like when people use words like 'my lifestyle.' When we use the word 'diet,' we're preparing ourselves for a big sacrifice that we know, the older we get, we're going to be too weak to fulfill. We just end up crashing and defeating ourselves. So I like telling myself that I'm not doing a diet, that this is my lifestyle, and I'm choosing to have a balanced meal. I don't like having zero carbs or all protein. I like getting all the nutrition that my body needs so that it can heal itself naturally."

2

Michelle Rodriguez

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Michelle Rodriguez appeared in the first film as Trudy Chacon. She shared her skincare secrets with Beauty Logic Blog. "My must-have beauty product is my moisturizer. I care more about my skin and its maintenance than I do covering it up. I cover my blemishes when I go out on the town with some tea tree oil to disinfect them, and then I'll put on an oil-free cover up under my eyes if I didn't sleep. After that I will apply a little lip stain on the cheeks (if I've neglected my weekly vitamin intake) for a fresh complexion. I'll put a little mascara, but that sums it up."

3

Sam Worthington

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Sam Worthington played Jake Sully in the first two films. Despite all his success, Worthington wants to stay humble and live a low-key lifestyle. "My life is still the same," he said to The Telegraph. "There is a fantastical element to my job because there is loads of glitz and glam attached to it. But I don't like all that, I didn't get into this to have my photo taken. If I wanted to be famous I would go on Big Brother."

4

Sigourney Weaver

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Sigourney Weaver played Dr. Grace Agustine in the first movie, and Kiri Sully in the second. She tells InStyle that being prepared is one of her biggest pieces of acting advice. "You've got to do your work ahead of time," she says. "Then you just go for it. You jump off the cliff."

5

Kate Winslet

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Kate Winslet played Ronal in the second film. She opened up about eating a plant-based diet and loving juicing to MindFood.com. "Our fridge is always full of spinach, kale, cucumbers. I'm vegetarian and my husband is vegan, so there's a lot of plant-based focus in our home. My husband turning vegan is relatively recent, so that's been a really fun education because you have to learn to be a little more inventive with foods."

6

Stephen Lang

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Stephen Lang played Miles Quarich in both films. He shared his approach to fitness in an interview with Men's Health. "At this point in my life, What's important to me is flexibility, stamina, and strength. And I've added one other thing to that, which is alignment."

7

Edie Falco

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Edie Falco played Frances Ardmore in the second film. She is known for following a vegetarian diet for years, and recently became vegan. Falco says to The Guardian that this impacted her time on The Sopranos, because her character made a lot of Italian food. "If you watch the scenes in the show where I'm supposed to be cooking, you'll see the camera never showed my hands, because I have no idea how to do that. That food is not even the kinda stuff I eat. I was vegetarian on the show and I became vegan in the past 10 years."

8

Matt Gerald

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Matt Gerald played Lyle Wainfleet in both films. He talked about how he chooses roles to play with The Action Elite. "When considering a role, I like to ask a few specific questions. 1) Is the piece well-written? 2) Is the character well-rounded with meaningful impact? 3) Does the project shoot in either Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, New York, New Orleans, or London? Yes to any two of these questions will generally suffice."

9

Joel David Moore

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Joel David Moore played Dr. Norm Spellman in both films. Ahead of the second film, he talked about his hopes for the franchise with People. "It's not about my small part of this big machine, it's about everybody coming together and finding the joy of filmmaking in a hybrid between tech and emotional quality. The third film is going to be even more [emotional]. We're just piling on every time with the emotions because every time that you take that next step with that family, it's going to be a more emotional journey. And the beautiful thing about that is Jim [Cameron] is never going to leave a question unanswered."

Anna Bechtel
Anna Bechtel is a freelance writer currently based in Hamden, CT. Read more
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