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Pics of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone


marceline

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Such a mess and its crazy they do not even have her families support to even go about this. If her family ever gave their consent to a biopic I would LOVE for the actress from Pariah, Adepero Oduye, to play Nina. Ever since someone on ONTD pointed it out -- I can't unsee it!

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I don't understand this at all, from the casting to making a gay family friend her love interest for the movie. It's ridiculous. And Zoe lost a lot of respect in my eyes by retweeting comments suggesting this is racism against her. It's not. It's not about how black Zoe's skin is, SHE LOOKS NOTHING LIKE NINA SIMONE. That is important. Mary J Blige was originally cast and would've fit the role better. Her looks are an important part to her music and her story and legacy. Why cast somebody you have to put in black face and give a prostetic nose? And there are SO MANY actresses who look similar enough to pull this off.

The problem and outrage is that it's so difficult for dark skinned actors to get cast as the leading man or woman. They can be the villain or the maid, but something like this they always get passed by. It's frustrating.

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Yeah, Nina's daughter wrote a lengthy post addressing everything that is so wrong about this film.

Viola Davis' career is certainly hot enough right now for her to lead a Nina biopic, and with Hollywood makeup magic, she could have pulled off Nina in her younger years a la Angela Basset as Tina.

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Angela Bassett looks NOTHING like Tina Turner, but I'll be damned if I didn't buy that she was Tina in that movie! A black woman cast as a black woman, and she was magnificent!

We have to continue to address this problem in Hollywood and it's sickening! ZS is NOT a black woman, and there are far superior black actresses who could have played this role. We didn't need someone pretty and popular masquerading as a black person.

I will skip this. I am not big on Jazz, but I would have watched this if a black actress were in the role.

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Assuming the script is any good (which is a BIG assumption)

Was Lauryn Hill not available for this?

Yes, I know about the tax evasion charges (which would actually put Lauryn having more in common with Nina Simone, as Simone had a 'dust up' with the IRS, as I've recently read), but if worse came to worse and she was incarcerated, she could arrange to be out for film shooting, a la Robert Downey Jr.

Risks and all Lauryn Hill, who can actually sing, definitely has a yen for pathos and has learned to play an instrument (albeit guitar, not piano), is still a much better choice for this role than Saldana.

If this were a bio-pic about about dance choreographer and innovator Katherine Dunham (although Saldana would have to gain more lbs. to become more sturdy looking), Saldana would be a better fit. But for Nina Simone, this is a poor casting choice.

Am I missing something?

And just for disclosure's sake, I am a big fan of Nina Simone's music but I believe I can look at this with a critical eye.

Everything I've read about this project leads me to believe that it is directionless, poorly cast and not reasonably conceived. I'm going to skip this one. When it comes on TV next year as the late night movie, I may check it out to satisfy my curiosity.

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I'm also a fan of Simone's which is exactly why I am so disappointed (read: disgusted) with this project. This will be a chance to bring Nina to a whole new audience and they have chosen to do that with...Zoe Saldana in blackface. Speaking of which, my affection for Ms. Saldana is rapidly dwindling.

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Is this supposed to be a big box office movie the size of Ray or WLGTDWI?

Did you all see Basquiat starring Jeffrey Wright back in the '90s? When I think of Nina, I think of a good indie flick of that size and scope. With an actress who actually looks like her without spending hours in the makeup chair (which helped none). See, this is everything that's wrong with Hollywood. They will tell you that Zoe was "simply the best actress for the role" ("and starring Meryl Streep as Coretta Scott King"), and we'd probably be sick if we could hear all of the smarmy knob-slobbing phone calls between agents and producers that got her in this role.

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