Zoe Saldana appears on the May issue of Self Magazine, most likely to promote her new movie, The Losers. The Losers actually looks like a cool film, and it stars certified hotties Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Idris Elba. So, Saldana should be raving about them, right? Not so much. She just talks about her fashion and her style vibe. I actually believe that Saldana is a little fashionista – her stylist is Rachel Zoe, and Saldana has made a few appearances on The Rachel Zoe Project. Saldana seemed very opinionated, and like a difficult client to dress because of her very strong opinions about what she should be wearing. That being said, Rachel Zoe seems like a bad-fashion enabler for Saldana, considering some of the cheesy, cheap-looking crap that Saldana wore during the awards season.

Saldana talks to Self about the difference between sexiness and being aggressive: “Sometimes you’re sexy confident or you’re aggressive confident. When I’m sexy confident, I always want to wear red pumps. The more disheveled they got, the more I loved them. My mom said, ‘Zoe, honestly, you can wear boots that are worn, but red heels? It just looks wrong.’ But I haven’t thrown them away yet. As long as I’m not out with my mom, I will wear them!” She also tells the magazine, ““You should never feel as if you’re hiding. My stylist [chooses clothes that] complement my personality, my character.” Here’s more:

Don’t be confused by Zoë Saldana’s glamorous red carpet looks–in real life, the star of Avatar and Star Trek isn’t exactly a girly-girl: “I’ve never really been that feminine,” she says in the May issue of SELF.

“Look in my closet and you’ll see things that are elegant, sexy, tomboyish, sophisticated, beautiful, aggressive. It’s harsh. It’s a lot of black. Pretty is the last word you would think of.”

The 31-year-old cover girl has held her personal fashion preferences since her childhood growing up in the Dominican Republic.

“The Caribbean is the most floral-happy culture in the world, and my sisters and I were like three little Jackie O’s with big sunglasses, reading all these sophisticated magazines and dressed in black at all times,” she says.

But that’s not to say the actress doesn’t occasionally enjoy playing dress-up.

“These florals [I’m wearing] tell a story… I was channeling that South Beach-looking-for-a-millionaire-husband-from-Switzerland kind of thing. I live in constant storytelling mode,” she says of a hot-pink strapless confection she wore during the shoot.

“Sometimes, I have to give myself permission to be pretty.” To hear more from Saldana, pick up the May issue of SELF or go to self.com.

[From People]

I totally know what she means when she says “Sometimes, I have to give myself permission to be pretty.” She’s saying that she’s afraid to be too girly, too feminine, too over the top, and she has to remind herself that fashion can be fun. But I’m still giggling over that line. My immediate response was “I have to give myself permission to wear sweatpants.” Or, “I have to give myself permission to go for a chocolate run when I’m PMSing and wearing my pajamas.” We can’t all be so fancy!

By the way, does anyone else think she’s got a mini-Jada Pinkett-Smith vibe going on?

Zoe Saldana’s Self cover and additional photos courtesy of Just Jared.