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Zoe Saldana Regrets Nina Simone Biopic In Tearful Apology: 'I Should Have Never Played Nina'

August 04, 2020

Zoe Saldana recently talked about playing Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic, Nina. In an Instagram Live conversation with Pose co-creator Steven Canals, Saldana said she regrets playing Simone. The movie was met with much controversy due to the fact that Saldana had to darken her skin tone and wear prosthetics to play the iconic singer.

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Saldana told Canals, “I should have never played Nina. I should have done everything in my power with the leverage that I had 10 years ago—which was a different leverage but it was leverage nonetheless—I should have tried everything in my power to cast a Black woman to play an exceptionally perfect Black woman.”

Zoe Saldana talking about how she regrets playing Nina Simone on a recent live stream (2/2) pic.twitter.com/3HEMRHwmpK
— Fiona Applebum says block Shaun King! (@WrittenByHanna) August 4, 2020

“I thought back then that I had the permission because I was a Black woman,” she continued. “And I am. But, it’s Nina. And Nina had a life and a journey that should be honored to the specific detail.”

“We’ve been appropriating ourselves with someone like Nina Simone for a very long time. And I just want her story to be told and I want it to be right because she deserves it,” she added. “I’m so sorry because I love her music. I know better today and I’m never going to do that again. Never.”

This is a stark difference to previous remarks from Saldana, who is Afro-Latinx, about playing Simone several years ago. “I’m Black the way I know how to be,” she said to Allure in 2016, referring to critics. 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. I never saw her as unattractive. Nina looks like half my family! But if you think the [prosthetic] nose I wore was unattractive, then maybe you need to ask yourself, What do you consider beautiful? Do you consider a thinner nose beautiful, so the wider you get, the more insulted you become?”

You can watch the full Instagram live interview with Canals below:

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Zoe Saldana (@zoesaldana) sits down with “Pose” (@poseonfx) creator and executive producer Steven Canals (@stevencanals) to chat about Afro-Latinidad, colorism in the Latinx community, Nina Simone, and more. #AfroLatinx #AfroLatinidad #BESE #ZoeSaldana #StevenCanals #Pose #PoseFX #AfroLatinos #Dominican #PuertoRican
A post shared by BESE (@bese) on Aug 3, 2020 at 6:54pm PDT

Photo: RLJ Entertainment/Getty