Zoe Saldana Defends Her Husband Taking Her Last Name: 'I Feel Proud'

Zoe Saldana was the first to admit that she was hesitant when her husband, Italian artist Marco Perego, told her he wanted to take her last name. Now she says she's never been prouder of her babies' daddy's unconventional decision.

"I tried to talk him out of it," the 36-year-old actress confessed to InStyle magazine. "I told him, 'If you use my name, you're going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world.'"

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Her husband reacted, "Marco looks up at me and says, 'Ah, Zoe, I don't give a s**t.'"

Feeling that her quotes to the publication may have been taken wrong, Zoe took to her Facebook on Tuesday to encourage husbands to consider taking their wives' last names instead of the reverse.

"Fathers, sons, brothers, men everywhere: Your legacy will not perish if you take your partner's surname, or she keeps hers," the Avatar star writes. "I felt proud that my husband decided to take my last name as his own... and I his."

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Questioning why this event in her marriage even garnered a story, she added, "Why is it so surprising, shocking, eventful that a man would take his wife's surname? Women have never been asked if its OK for them to give up their names -- why doesn't that make the news?"

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Zoe goes on to ask men to "redefine masculinity."

"Men, you will not cease to exist by taking your partner's surname. On the contrary -- you’ll be remembered as a man who stood by change," she writes. "A real 'man' leads along side his partner. A real man accepts his mortality. A real man acknowledges that nothing can be done alone."

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Do you agree with Zoe and Marco Saldana?

The couple welcomed their twin boys, Cy and Bowie, this past November. Here's Zoe talking about motherhood:

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