Actress, Zoe Saldana was recently chosen to play the role of Jazz musician/singer Nina Simone in her biopic film and a result a new petiiton has been filed to prevent Saldana from filming the role. Since word spread, there has been a a bit of uproar at hollywood’s decision to choose Saldana [who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican decent] rather than an African American actress who many feel represents and can resonate the character of Simone more so than Saldana.
Now, Simone’s daughter, Simone Kelly has posted a message on Nina Simone’s facebook page stating that they have not consented approval of the upcoming film, and an online petition is underway on Change.org urging producers to pull Saldana from the lead cast line-up. Producers of the film have noted that Mary J. Blige was there first ideal candidate for the role but Mary declined given her hectic music schedule.
Kelly went on to say that her mother’s wish would have been for veteran actress Whoopi Goldberg to play her.
“My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark,” Kelly told the Times, adding that Saldana should not play the role because “appearance-wise this is not the best choice.”
While some reports may suggest that “black people” are petitioning against this decision because Zoe is not “black enough“, as Fox news reported, I beg to differ. I’m almost 100% certain that an African American actor would NEVER be casted to be play a Caucasian actor[unless its a parody film of course] and especially if its a biopic film . Sometimes we need to go call a spade; a spade! When it comes to biopic films movie sales should be the furthest thing from a director’s mind because it goes against the golden rule.
There has always and continues to be this very thin line of “black acceptability” in hollywood and YES often times lighter colored women are chosen to play in movies and tv roles than darker/fare skin colored women. Why? Because Hollywood likes to sustain a certain image among its hollywood stars and although we have some darker skin celebrities that have passed the acceptability bar [Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, Loretta Divine, Forrest Whitaker, Denzel Washington, Jamie Fox, Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, to name a few ] there is still a small percentage of dark skin actors in the hollywood realm and that’s a FACT.
What are you thoughts people!
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