It’s official. Zoe Saldana will be playing jazz legend Nina Simone in the upcoming “Nina” biopic. Filming quietly began in Los Angeles last week without an announcement confirming Saldana as the final choice for the lead role. In mid-August, the Hollywood Reporter confirmed Saldana’s selection which sparked opposition as to whether the light-skinned Latina actress was the ideal candidate to play the darker-skinned artist. This created controversy and led to a Change.org petition urging the film’s producers, Cynthia Mort and Jimmy Iovine, to reconsider and choose an actress that actually resembled Simone. There was also outrage from Nina’s Simone’s daughter and brother.
Singer Jill Scott didn’t approve of Saldana for the role but told HelloBeautiful.com that in order to be taken seriously she would require ” a prosthetic nose would be helpful and definitely some darker makeup.” It looks like Scott’s feedback was taken into consideration as Saldana was recently spotted on the movie set with dark makeup, prosthetic teeth, an afro wig and an enlarged nose. Those who have been following this story recall that Mary J. Blige was set to play the role of Simone but abruptly backed out earlier this year without any explanation even though Iovine is her longtime friend, mentor and her label head at Interscope Records. Last year Blige told US Weekly: “I’m definitely still doing it and I’m in acting classes for it now. We start shooting at the end of the month!” Blige refused to elaborate on her decision while her reps cited “scheduling conflicts.”
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