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Mom smash! Zoe Saldana uses The Hulk to get her kids to eat their veggies

When you spend the day covered head-to-toe in green makeup, you may as well use that to your advantage at kid mealtime.
/ Source: TODAY Contributor

It's not easy being green, but it just might be helpful.

Zoe Saldana plays green-skinned Gamora in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," which comes out May 5. And when she appeared with a number of her co-stars on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Monday night, she explained that while the makeup takes four hours to apply, it's helping her convince her kids to eat their vegetables.

Guardians
Zoe Saldana, seen here with co-star Chris Pratt in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," says she was able to convince her kids she knew the Hulk thanks to her green movie makeup.Marvel Films

“Well, my kids think that I’m related to the Hulk, so I’m using it, and I’m getting them to eat their vegetables,” she told Kimmel. “I even go as far as, I go behind this wall, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to go call the Hulk because you guys are not eating your veggies and he’s going to come and take your toys, and I go behind this wall, and I'm like GRRRR! And they're like, 'No Hulk, no come, no come, Hulk!' And they eat their veggies’”

Saldana and husband Marco Perego-Saldana have twin sons, Cy and Bowie, age 2, and a new baby Zen, born in February.

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The actress also told Kimmel that while her makeup routine for the film was grueling, it was made a little shorter for the second film as opposed to the original 2014 movie.

"We did make progress from 'Guardians 1' to 'Guardians 2,' we managed to shave off an hour on the whole makeup process," she said. "So instead of being five hours, it was four. I really appreciated it."

And the makeup stuck around, too, Saldana said. "I had green (makeup on) for like a month after we stopped shooting."