It’s tempting to back away slowly from Nina, to pretend you didn’t see it and in doing so sidestep the subtleties of the controversy surrounding it, because while we regularly come together to discuss the statistics of race representation, colorism rarely enters the conversation. Whether this stems from discomfort and ignorance by the predominantly white media, the pessimistic idea that we need to fight one battle at a time, or one of the many other factors that contribute to the silence surrounding this issue, silence will get us precisely nowhere. So let’s talk about it.
Unfortunately, what people are saying about the biopic of the artist and activist Nina Simone has gotten very ugly. While Simone herself was proud of her appearance, the casting of the noticeably lighter-skinned actress Zoe Saldana has had people up in arms since the casting was announced in 2012. This has turned into some very personal attacks on Saldana, who herself has made headlines for staring in massive hits like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar in parts where her skin tone was hidden. And yes, Saldana has made statements in the past about her appearance that many people disagree with, but did she decide on who was cast as Simone or if it was appropriate to use make-up that noticeably darkened her skin?
While you can’t remove Saldana entirely from the debate (she did pursue the part), it seems more apt to me to focus on the filmmakers behind Nina or to avoid laying blame on any one person. The lack of people who look like Simone in film and other forms of media is a symptom of a much larger problem, and lobbing personal attacks won’t do much to combat that. The preference for lighter-skinner, thinner-nosed, and straight-haired women of color is as detrimental as adding one black character to make your project more diverse. All sorts of people exist in this world, and none of us are more or less deserving of representation than anyone else.
The salt on this wound is that the trailer for Nina is underwhelming, feeling like a standard biopic with a very affected performance by Saldana. The lawsuit filed by writer/director Cynthia Mort against the production company alleging that creative control was taken away from her is even more of a red flag. It seems that the film won’t be the biopic Simone deserves, but if everyone makes the conversation surrounding it less personal, we may make the kind of headway that Simone would be proud of.
Nina is directed by Cynthia Mort and stars Zoe Saldana and David Oyelowo. It will be released in the U.S. on April 22nd, 2016. Further release dates are not currently known.
How do you feel about the production decisions behind Nina? Let us know in the comments.
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