By now, it should go without saying that Zoe Saldana portraying the iconic Nina Simone in the biopic Nina is a big steaming pile of “this shouldn’t be happening.”
While watching the trailer, I was expecting to get angry. To be disgusted not only at the fact that Zoe Saldana is participating in blackface, but also at the fact that her performance doesn’t seem to take Ms. Simone’s life or personality seriously. I was waiting for the moment that would make me cringe so ferociously that I had to briefly look away from my computer screen. Don’t get me wrong, there was quite a bit of cringing. The first time I watched the trailer I spent the latter half of the video with my fingers pressed firmly into my temples. But mostly I just felt confusion.
Casting Zoe Saldana, making her darken her skin and wear a prosthetic nose just doesn’t make sense. I would have had a much easier time understanding what was happening if they had left her appearance as is. I would have immediately grasped that colorism in Hollywood was once again rearing its ugly head and that Nina Simone was its latest victim. But that didn't seem to be the case. Zoe Saldana was made to look darker, her nose was widened to “resemble” Nina Simone’s and she was speaking in an accent similar to Nina Simone's. So then the question becomes “why?” If the movie directors and producers were going to go to such great lengths and stir up so much controversy trying to make Zoe Saldana look the part, why not just cut out the extras and hire a darker actress who more closely resembles Simone from the get go? Why spend extra time and money on makeup and facial prosthesis? Why put yourself in a position to be surrounded by so much negative attention that a movie filmed in 2012 is only just now seeing the light of day? It has begun to seem to me like this movie and its publicity are more about the controversy than telling the story of an icon and that is troubling.
The last few years have been very hit or miss for Black music biopics. Films like Nina and the also-troubling Aaliyah biopic exist in the same space as Straight Outta Compton and even CrazySexyCool: The TLC story. These movies have all been either really good or extremely questionable. In an op-ed piece I wrote a while back, I made the suggestion that for a biopic to be good for the person being portrayed the subject didn't need to be their doppelganger, but any differences shouldn’t be distracting. Watching Zoe Saldana clumsily try to capture the essence of Simone in this trailer was hugely distracting from the story itself. Setting aside her makeup job, which to be frank, looks like a 14-year-old who’s just started using foundation and hasn’t learned to match her makeup shade with her skin tone, Saldana tries way too hard. Nina Simone was a musical genius, a commanding performer who knew the values of both sound and silence. She was also a woman who managed not to take herself too seriously, who laughed richly during interviews and in the same breath gave insightful commentary on music and its place in the world. She was also a woman who later in her life struggled with mental illness and the pressures of resurging her career. Saldana barking out a laugh like a hyena and throwing bottles of champagne at David Oyelewo reads more like a bad Saturday Night Live trailer parody than a serious look into the life and times of a woman whose music was part of the soundtrack of the Civil Rights movement.
A trailer is supposed to make you look forward to a film and this one most certainly didn’t do that. This is mostly the fault of RLJ Entertainment, the producers, directors and writers who gave Saldana poor material to work with and allowed a film like this to get this far. The story only shows one side of Ms. Simone -- her relationship (a side that, according to her daughter, didn't exist). This trailer breeds more questions and discomfort than curiosity and intrigue about the life of a luminary. We as viewers and consumers deserve better. Zoe Saldana, as an actress who has more than proven her talent, deserves better. Most importantly, Nina Simone, her family and her legacy deserve much much better.
But don't take my word for it. You can watch this trailer yourself below:
For reference, here are two interviews with Simone in 1984 and 1988.
What do you see?
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