There has been some light chatter lately about the casting for the upcoming biopic about Nina Simone.
OK, no. People are legit mad about this. It surrounds the fact that Zoe Saldana in no way resembles the singer/activist.
This is a concept that is rather unprecedented in Hollywood, right? Hiring an actor who doesn’t look like the subject? That never happens in movies!
Never.
Basically unprecedented, like I said.
Well, George Clooney is a fox.
Seriously, the problem with this controversy is that it is misguided. No, Zoe Saldana
does not look anything like Nina Simone
.
But there have been times when that hasn’t stopped a movie from being made. And darkening Saldana’s skin to make her look more like Simone has been done before. But for me, the question is not whether this is blackface. It isn’t. It’s makeup used to make an actor look like her subject. Steve Carell donned a huge prostetic nose and got nominated for an Oscar. Will Smith is several shades lighter than Nigerian doctor Bennet Omalu and is an American. (No Oscar for that, but a touchy subject, so)
But you do this. You make these concessions for a movie when the actor is right for the part. Carrell and Smith sure made you forget that one was a comedy writer and performer on “The Daily Show” back in the day and the other used to be a rapper. So, is Saldana right for the part? Does she warrant the extra million bucks in makeup that the studio has to spend to make this pic work?
The movie isn’t out yet, so maybe the answer is yes. Maybe Saldana surprises everyone and gets the Oscar nod, too. But based on Saldana’s current body of work, well, I don’t see it. Remember her scene-stealing work in “Avatar?” “Guardians of the Galaxy?” And boy, what she bought to the party in the “Star Trek” movies? Woo buddy!
(And *facepalm* — I just looked up Saldana’s filmography and I see there are three more “Avatar” movies in pre-production. Why? Why?!!!!!!) My question is: Is Zoe Saldana so good an actress that it’s worth the effort? Is this just a case where her skin was the only obstacle to playing this role? No. The odd thing is that it appears that Saldana seems somewhat aware of her square-peg situation, especially if you read this story.
So why would you take a role that you don’t feel suited to take? The answer is the lack of diversity in the arts. Saldana is a woman of color and if you don’t like her shade, well, OK then. But she is a woman of color. Perhaps she took this role because there aren’t a lot of other roles for women of color out there. Not good, well-developed roles, anyway.
It’s tough to find meaty roles for women in general. The reason is that your screenwriters and directors are still mostly men and do not possess even a suntan. Can a man write a three-dimensional role for a women, picking up her nuances, a realistic reaction to a certain situation? Can he do the same for a person of color? Not without a lot of research, and even then, it’s still guessing. So what you get is a lot of white male-heavy movies with weak female supporting characters in the first place. What you also get are women of color with limited options for movie roles that are good. You get Zoe Saldana playing a role that even she isn’t sure she should play. I hope she does it well — often, the really great actors are only found after someone takes a chance on them, giving them a role that others think might be too much for them. The trailer for “Nina” doesn’t really give you much of Zoe being Nina, which is already an interesting choice.
This controversy should be a lesson to Hollywood. The general lacking of good roles for woman and people of color is not going to reverse itself until you start giving a forum to more women and minority writers and directors. And at least one major movie studio realizes this: Warner Bros. announced this week it is launching a program that will mentor five directors from underrepresented groups. Now this might seem small, but this is exactly what will bring about a more diverse Hollywood world.
Photos of Omalu and Smith from The Associated Press. Photo of Carell from wireimage.com. Photos of John duPont, Clooney, Mr. Fox and Saldana taken from wikipedia.com. Photo of Simone from ninasimone.com.