Nina Simone Estate Tells Zoe Saldana To ‘Take Nina’s Name Out Your Mouth’

Nina Simone’s property has once more spoken out towards the forthcoming biopic concerning the late jazz singer, this time responding to the trailer that premiered on Wednesday.
The property’s Twitter account responded pointedly to a tweet from Zoe Saldana, who was already the topic of controversy for having apparently darkened her pores and skin tone with a purpose to painting Simone in “Nina.”
Critiques of Saldana’s casting escalated when the film’s poster was unveiled on Tuesday. Accusations of colorism — bias towards darkish pores and skin tones — circulated all through the Internet, mirroring sentiments expressed when Saldana changed Mary M. Blige within the position after the shoot was delayed in 2012. (Saldana is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent.)
And this wasn’t the primary time Simone’s property has condemned “Nina.” “The addition of Zoe Saldana to the casting — for me — was solely an extra instance of how a lot this undertaking actually simply veered away from what the reality was,” Simone’s daughter advised The Huffington Post final yr when the documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” opened. She additionally stated in a weblog publish that the property was “by no means requested permission nor invited to take part” within the film.
Saldana has not responded to the newest controversies, aside from to function the poster on her Instagram account with “…” because the caption. (The Huffington Post reached out to Saldana’s rep for remark however has not but heard again.) She did, nevertheless, inform InStyle final yr that she understood the supply of the criticism.
“I didn’t assume I was proper for the half, and I know lots of people will agree, however then once more, I don’t assume Elizabeth Taylor was proper for Cleopatra both,” Saldana stated. “An artist is colorless, genderless … It’s extra complicated than simply, ‘Oh, you selected the Halle Berry look-alike to play a darkish, strikingly lovely, iconic black lady.’ The fact is, they selected an artist who was prepared to sacrifice herself. We wanted to inform her story as a result of she deserves it.”
“Nina,” the directorial debut of “The Brave One” and “Roseanne” scribe Cynthia Mort, opens April 22 in theaters and on VOD.
Also on HuffPost
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Zoe Saldana, Nina Simone, Nina, Movies, Colorism
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