Colorism is making headlines as word has spread that Afro-Latina actress Zoe Saldana will be cast as Nina Simone in a biopic about the late African-American singer. Saldana, star of new film "The Words," has Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage. She's light-skinned with long, flowing hair. Simone, on the other hand, was dark-skinned with cropped natural hair. Simone Kelly, daughter of the legendary songstress, says that Saldana's features make her a poor choice to play Nina Simone.
"My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark," she said. "Appearance-wise this is not the best choice."
Kelly isn't the only one who takes issue with the idea of Saldana playing Simone.
Coffee Rhetoric blogger Tiffani Jones accused Hollywood of whitewashing and "lightwashing" black stories and directed her readers to a Change.org petition calling for someone who looks more like Simone to be cast in the part. Meanwhile African studies scholar Yaba Blay told the New York Times that part of Simone's power was her aesthetic.
"This was a woman who prevailed and triumphed despite her aesthetic," Blay said. She also complained that dark-skinned actresses are all too often "erased from the media, especially in the role of the 'it girl' or the love interest."
I'm a fan of Zoe Saldana, but even I was taken aback when I heard about her probable casting as Simone. With makeup and wardrobe, can the filmmakers make Saldana more believable as Nina Simone? Sure. But this isn't as simple as casting a blonde actress to play a brunette. Overcoming racism and, by extension, colorism was part of Simone's story. She wrote about skin color in songs such as "Four Women." She also participated in the civil rights movement. While the filmmakers argue that the "Nina" biopic won't be a linear story of Simone's life, I don't see how they can tell the singer's story without addressing the discrimination she faced because of her physical appearance and racial characteristics. While Saldana has no doubt faced discrimination as a woman of color in Hollywood and colorism in and outside of the industry, she likely has not experienced the kind of rejection and disapproval that Nina Simone faced for being a dark-skinned black woman who embraced her natural appearance during a time when blacks had to pass the paper-bag test to be considered worthy of respect and admiration.
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I do not believe Zoe Saldana should play the part of Nina Simone. Yes she looks good but she is the opposite of most of what Nina Simone stood for. I say “most” because Saldana is a hard working entertainer who has the ability to reinvent herself with every new role but she also represents the paradoxical character that Nina Simone would despise. Simone was an activist, a black activist in addition to being a singer, composer, classical pianist…and she was dark skinned. There are several great dark skinned actors who need work that could play that role why pick the one who could care less about blackness when blackness is what Simone stood for? Zoe has made it a point in every interview and magazine article to establish the fact that she is not black even though she looks it and gained notoriety or fame playing in what would be considered traditionally black acting roles. She is Latina and that is the community she chooses to identify with so why not give the role to someone who would pay tribute to life and love that Simone stood for and this a love for black people. Have you heard her song “Strange Fruit”? or “Black is the Color of my True Loves Hair”? She could never be all she wanted to be because she was not light skinned or of European beauty that was the purpose of her painful musical compositions as well as the mysterious deaths of close friends who were poets and the lynchings that happened during that time. It would be a great disservice to cast Zoe.
This is bullsh**. I am tired of darker blacks thinking lighter blacks have it easier than them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Black people notice the differences in color more than whites or other races do. They see a black person period and not the gradations in color. To me, Zoe is not light that is absurd and you and the rest of the complainers are blind and the only colorism that exist is between darker skin blacks w/ their unwarranted color complex against lighter skinned blacks.
Justice Marshall was a light skined black man that fought for black people. Clarence Thomas is a dark skinned black man who is doing everything he can to turn back the clock. To hear it from black people, it would be the light skinned black man that is the problem. Why was there no outcry when Lawrence fishburne played Thurgood Marshall? He doesn’t look anyhting like him. But it’s ok for a darker black actor to play a lighter skinned real life black person but heaven help a lighter actor play a darker skinned black person.
Also, the staement is a outright lie that Zoe has said she is not black. She always says she is a black woman period. She has never claimed to be anything else. She was born a black hispanic she did not chose it. She is a Dominican. As a black hispanic myself I have heard this racist diatribe from black peole myself and they do not get the irony of while they are crying racism they are being just as racist and bigoted against black hispanics who they think have to deny who they are and refuse to speak Spanish in order to prove they are truly “black”.
Zoe DOES identify as a black woman and a Latina. They are not mutually exclusive.
“When I go to the D.R., the press in Santo Domingo always asks, “¿Qué te consideras, dominicana o americana?” (What do you consider yourself, Dominican or American?) I don’t understand it, and it’s the same people asking the same question. So I say, time and time again, “Yo soy una mujer negra.” (“I am a black woman.”) [They go,] “Oh, no, tú eres trigueñita.” (“Oh no, you are ‘dark skinned’”) I’m like, “No! Let’s get it straight, yo soy una mujer negra.” (“I am a black woman.”)”
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0757855/bio
I think the roll should be given to a singer that most resembles her facial features. Someone who has experience in acting.
I don’t have a problem with interracial relationships and the issue with color. But to quote Dr. Asa G. Hilliard we are fighting a fight that we didn’t start. We keep fighting with each other over our complexions instead of over our loyalty with each other. You see the cohesiveness in other ethnic groups. They fight, but they come together when the issue is themselves or others. Those who believe that choosing Zoe Saldana to play is Nina Simone is a good choice is just promoting Hollywood’s white agenda because Zoe’s complexion has nothing to do with this. She simply does not show that defiant character that a black woman who is African first shows and which is desirable for portraying Nina Simone. If she did, she wouldn’t get the roles that she does. I’m sure many white men loved Ms. Simone and she loved them, at least she didn’t hate them. But she didn’t carry herself as if she couldn’t wait to get up in a white man’s face. But every time I see Zoe she’s locking lips with one. All they’ll do is make Ms Simone’s story an issue over her relationship with whites just like they always have done with other movies about blacks. They will make her lusty and if they don’t do that then they’ll criminalize them. They’ll even invent some white characters and make all of the blacks her life useless and lowlifes. Hollywood will mess up Ms. Simone’s life the way have all of the other important black’s lives that they’ve portrayed. The lists of movies that have portrayed us in, in nasty negative roles are too long to list here. And now we’re going to trust them with Nina Simone and think the issue is Zoe Saldana’s complexion. It figures.
Zoe is a fine actress but she does not even REMOTELY resemble Nina Simone. Viola Davis, tho she cannot sing, would make a FAR better choice.
@Rachelsun, the article asked the question, “Is Zoe too Light too Play Nina?” I simply responded to the question. I identify with dark and light skinned blacks. I am African American. One parent dark and one parent very light. We are of mixed heritage as many African Americans are. Native American, Latino, White and African. Lesson: There is a reason black people notice color more than others do, its because we are treated differently because of it, that is why it is called racism. If you are suggesting that darker skinned actors have it easier in Hollywood than lighter skinned ones you mistaken and possibly a bit misguided. I wrote a term paper on Nina Simone and if you know much about her, her entire life was shaped by the politics of race. Zoe has done several articles that deny her blackness whether you choose to see it like that or not, that is how an African American sees it. We have a right to have our experiences validated whether you agree or not. In America a black person was someone who had brown skin, tight curly hair and brown eyes, it did not matter what ethnicity they were. Read about the Negro Baseball League. Labels change but the fact still remains that Zoe may be a good actor but she looks nothing like Nina and would be better played by an actor who looks like her because her appearance shapes her story. Zoe has become more like a biracial sex symbol and that is okay but not for this role.
@Lorrie As a couple of previous commenters have pointed out, Zoe Saldana does NOT deny she is black. Why do you keep insisting she denies it? Latino is not a race and we come in every color under the sun – INCLUDING black! And while she is not the darkest skinned person around, she doesn’t exactly pass the paper bag test either. I didn’t see a single complaint when Forest Whittaker was selected to play Idi Amin- and interestingly enough, he’s got a similar skin tone as Zoe Saldana. If there was no problem for the medium skinned Forest Whitaker to play the dark skinned Idi Amin, why is there such a fuss over this?