Following a string of rom-coms like The Heart Specialist and After Sex and a small part in the thriller Vantage Point, in 2009, Saldana boarded the Enterprise to voyage through space in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot. Abrams himself asked Saldana to join the project, and after he complimented her abilities, she was sold. "For an actor, that's all you need, that's all you want," she said of the interaction. "To get the acknowledgment and respect from your peers."

Just as her ballet experience had done for her in Center Stage, Saldana's past with the original Gene Roddenberry-created series prepared her to play Nyota Uhura. While not exactly a Trekkie herself, having never seen the '60s show, Saldana portrayed Star Trek fanatics in the 2004 Steven Spielberg-directed drama The Terminal and a year later in Guess Who alongside Ashton Kutcher and the late Bernie Mac. Saldana can even back up the claim that "mother knows best," as her own mom was a huge fan of the show and would often call Saldana on set to give her advice on how to approach the character.

"I'm not afraid to say my mom is a Trekkie—it's really cool. She was the one who helped me tap into my role," Saldana said, speaking with MTV. "She'd leave voicemails as I was driving to set, and she speaks with a very cute Spanish accent. She'd be like, 'Zoe, so for this scene when you are in front of Spock, Uhura has to be stoic because she is elegant and remember she's a translator so she is very sociable. Okay?' She would leave these messages and I was like, 'Who is this lady?' She's such a sci-fi geek!"

Saldana's flesh and blood wasn't the only one over the moon about her performance in Star Trek. One critic even called her Uhura "brilliant." We can't say we disagree.