People are not too happy with Zoe Saldana’s new movie.
An official poster for Nina, the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saladana, has been revealed and people are pissed off.
The new movie features Zoe Saldana wearing a prosthetic nose and darkening her skin to match Nina Simone’s skin tone. In the years following the casting announcement, there has been criticism from Nina Simone’s family, arguing out that is basically blackface for Zoe Saladana, who’s of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent and effectively a disgrace to Nina Simone’s legacy.
Nina Simone’s daughter probably hated the movie the most and was against the movie’s casting decision from the start, telling the New York Times in 2012, “My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark. Appearance-wise this is not the best choice.” She also told Ebony, “I love Zoe Saldana’s work. I’ve seen some of her movies more than once and really enjoy what she brings to the screen. As an actress I respect her process, but I also know that there are many actresses out there, known or not, who would be great as my mother.”
Zoe defended the movie role. “It doesn’t matter how much backlash I will get for it, I will honor and respect my black community because that’s who I am.” In another interview with HipHollywood.com that year, Saldana said, “I don’t care who tells me that I am not this and I am not that. I know who I am and I know what Nina Simone means to me. So that is my truth and that set me free.”
Many people took to Twitter to bash the movie:
@brokeymcpoverty Zoe Saldana’s makeup in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ looked better. pic.twitter.com/JtKz3S2Dcx
— Melanism (@Melanism) March 1, 2016
Zoe Saldana As Nina Simone Is What Happens When Diversity Doesn’t https://t.co/9k0iH9GZm0 pic.twitter.com/8SH0ItleJY
— VSB (@VerySmartBros) March 2, 2016
Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone, y’all. The devil is a LIAR and the truth ain’t in him, #BISHWHERE? pic.twitter.com/CKgCDYKZjf
— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) March 1, 2016
