In an interview today with The Wall Street Journal, actress Zoe Saldana discussed the recent #ColombiaIsBeautiful campaign being waged to call attention to the movie COLOMBIANA. Por Colombia Nacional, an organization formed to educate people about Colombia’s history and culture, has appeared in several news stories about the campaign, and the WSJ now has Saldana on record discussing her thoughts about #ColombiaIsBeautiful. Saldana, who is Puerto Rican and Dominican, is a rising Latina Hollywood star.
WSJ: The nonprofit group PorColombia has launched a campaign against “Colombiana,” saying it portrays Latinos in a negative light. How do you respond?
ZS: Shame on them? I don’t know, I wish I knew how to address stupid unintelligent comments but I don’t, I’m not a stupid person. I’m sorry, I never like to get political but it’s just a shame that there are so many people out there that think so ignorantly. She could have been from Puerto Rico, she could have been from Goa, she could have been from China. But Luc Besson just wanted her to be from Colombia. Once you watch the movie, it has nothing to do with drugs, it has to do with violence. But violence lives in every city in every corner in every part of the world. So that said, PorColombia, are you kidding me? I’ve been trying to be diplomatic about it because I don’t want to be bitter. Why would you think that this was made in such a simple fashion?
Franky Benítez 
Agree Karla. Why didn’t luc Benson just call the movie Frenches revenge and use Zoe Saldana as the main character. I mean their are Afro French people who live in France and speak French fluently.Example Cheick Kongo is Afro French. In fact they speak better french than Zoe can speak Spanish. I mean Paris is a hub or Drugs and guns and illegal activities like the drug trade.
Instead of trying to ruin Colombia’s beautiful image and people & the Latin culture why not just taint his own French culture. Also their is Afro English, Afro Japanese, Afro Chinese, ect ect but lets be clear. While their is all these people when you think let say of Japanese you don’t think of Afro Japanese even though their is some just like Zoe doesn’t pop into you mind when you say Latina. You think Sofia Vergara, Eva Longoria, ect ect. I mean their is a Afro Colombian population and they have tried to keep their roots & original language. Look up Palenque in Colombia on youtube. These people are honorable people who are way more inspiring then Zoe Saldana but have had to fight to keep their culture alive & fight being Latinized because many are not seen as part of the Latin community. Maybe the rich and famous & successful but that is about it.
Just copy and paste the link below on youtube.
Palenque San Basilio, Bolivar, Maroon Community in Colombia
Thanks for the comment! All good points!
LeBraun: Colombia’s always had a reputation for drug running, due to stuff happening in the 1990s. It’s nothing new. If the film tried too hard to portray Colombia in a good way it would ruin the action film ethos. Plus only the opening scenes take place in Colombia.