Avatar star Zoe Saldana discusses the moment she was offered her part in the film, and how it transformed a mundane task completely.

Avatar: The Way of Water star Zoe Saldana opened up about how one phone call turned an otherwise mundane moment into the memory of a lifetime.

When asked by a fan at a press conference attended by Collider about her favorite moment from the making of Avatar, Saldana instead discussed the moment she was offered her part. "I know that your question was specific to my memories of making the movie, but I can't forget getting that phone call from Jim saying, 'I want you to play Neytiri," Saldana recalled. "I was changing my niece's dirty diaper, at that time, and I've never enjoyed a dirty diaper as much as I enjoyed changing that diaper, when I was on the phone with Jim."

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The actor also remarked on her immediate reaction to the news, saying, "The thoughts that ran through my mind were excitement and gratitude. I was getting to work with my idol, the creator of Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley. And then, it was like, 'Oh, I've gotta get to work. She has an arrow and she knows martial arts. She climbs trees."

Saldana starred in 2009's Avatar as Neytiri, the lead Na'vi protagonist of the film. She will reprise the role for Avatar: The Way of Water, and is slated to do so for the third and fourth entries into the franchise as well. Saldana previously opened up about the impact seeing The Way of Water for the first time had on her. She explained, "It's powerful, it's compelling. I can get choked up just talking about it, because I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second installment, right before the year ended, last year, and I was speechless. I was moved to tears."

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Avatar: The Way of Water will also see the returns of original franchise stars Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver, although the latter won't be reprising her role from the first film like her co-stars. Instead, Weaver will be portraying the teenage Na'vi daughter of Worthington's Jake Sulley and Saldana's Neytiri. Weaver touched on the new skills, including parkour, that she had to learn for the part. "On Avatar: The Way of Water, I was older than a lot of the other people, and we had to do a lot of parkour," Weaver said. "We had to do burpees. We had to do freediving. Don't you love these jobs where you have to learn some really outlandish thing that you keep with you for the rest of your life?"

Avatar: The Way of Water arrives in theaters on Dec. 16.

John Dodge has been an avid consumer of comic books and nerd culture for as long as he can remember. An expert on competitive gaming and obscure kids shows from the 80's and 90's, John has far too many opinions about Beetleborgs for someone in their thirties. You can find him occasionally discussing them over on Twitter at @JohnJDodge.

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