Nina Simone Actress Zoe Saldana Sorry for Taking Role: “Nina Deserved Better”
The actress Zoe Saldana has apologized for playing Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic Nina—a role for which she wore skin-darkening makeup, a prosthetic nose, and false teeth—in an interview with Bese. Saldana, who identifies as Afro-Latina, told Pose creator Steven Canals, “I should have never played Nina. The leverage that I had 10 years ago [was] a different leverage but it was leverage nonetheless. I should have done everything in my power to cast a Black woman to play an exceptionally perfect Black woman.” The conversation begins in the video below around the 41-minute mark.
Having initially turned down the role, Saldana faced sustained criticism when her casting was announced, including from Simone’s daughter. In 2012, Simone Kelly told The New York Times her mother “was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark.... Appearance-wise this is not the best choice.”
At the time, Saldana refuted her critics, telling Allure Magazine, “There’s no one way to be Black. I’m Black the way I know how to be. You have no idea who I am. I am Black. I’m raising Black men. Don’t you ever think you can look at me and address me with such disdain.”
Now, Saldana says Simone “deserved better”: “I thought back then that I had the permission because I was a Black woman,” she told Bese, amid a tearful apology. “And I am. But it was Nina Simone. And Nina had a life and a journey that should be honored to the most specific detail.”
Read “Why the Color of Nina Simone’s Skin Is as Important as the Sound of Her Voice” on the Pitch, and check out our feature “Nina Simone: Her Art and Life in 33 Songs..”
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
