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Singer, Zendaya Coleman decide to back out of her lead role in Aaliyah’s upcoming biopic film. The disney star turned pop singer received criticism from fans when news spread that she would be playing the music icon. Coleman was criticized for not being ‘black enough’ and being too ‘underage’ to play Aaliyah.
Well, Coleman says that her recent decision was not a result of the public controversy but for personal and spiritual reasons.
” Let me just explaining something. The reason why I chose not to do the Aailyah movie had nothing to do with the haters or people telling me that I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t talented enough, or I wasn’t black enough. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. “
” The main reasons were the production value wasn’t there. There were complications with the music rights and I just felt like it wasn’t being handled delicately considering the situation. I tried my best to reach out to the family on my own and I wrote a letter, but, I was unable to do so. Therefore, I felt not really morally okay with moving forward with the project. ”
” Congratulations to the new woman playing Aaliyah. I only hope that she does not have to deal with half the hate I had to deal with. Remember that we are all human beings trying to do what we love to do. Let’s practice motivation and love, not discrimination and hate. “
Lifetime has now announced that Actress, Alexandra Shipp will be the replacement lead in the tv film and daytime tv host Wendy Williams is set to join the film’s executive producer’s club. Williams shared the news with fans saying:
” I’m excited to exec produce the Aaliyah @lifetimetv movie w/ @DebraMChase. Prod starts later this month and @AlexShipp will play Aaliyah.
Shipp is best known for her role as KT Rush on the Nickolodeon show ‘House of Anubis’, Days Of Our Lives, Switched At Birth, Victorious, and ‘Awkward’. She currently has a re-occuring role in season 2 of Showtime’s ‘Ray Donovan’ show.
At this time, Aaliyah’s family does not support the production of this film.