#BlackBiopics: Twitter’s Roast of Bad Casting Choices
New pictures of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone in the unauthorized biography just got released and folks are mad all over again at the ridiculousness of that casting choice. I’ve already blogged about why Zoe playing Nina was a terrible choice. Of ALLLLL actresses that could have played Nina, they went with Zoe and chose to paint her skin darker. WHY NOT JUST USE ONE OF THE MANY GIFTED DARK-SKINNED ACTRESSES IN HOLLYWOOD??? Ughhhhh! Just look at this picture:
Anyway, because you know Twitter ain’t got no chill, this spurred a hashtag called #BlackBiopics. It was created by the homie Saeed Jones (@theferocity) to make fun of the terrible casting choices Hollywood makes and it went from Black folks who just don’t match to us casting white folks in the place of some of our favorite icons. Hilarity ensued.
The level of shade in this hashtag is so high that I had to turn on a lamp in my house even though it’s daytime. Chile…
If you can’t view the tweets below, see it on Storify!
Everyone needs to go take a nap ASAPTUALLY! I’ll be updating the tweets as more roll in.
It is time to write that book. Come into The Book Academy and learn how to go from IDEA to INK.
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17 Comments
This hash tag is killing me! *dies* Fix it Jesus!
What did they do to that poor actress’ eyeballs? It looks like her eyes were folded in half horizontally…
(and seriously, she should have had enough self respect to refuse the role. it would be like me accepting a role playing a skinny woman. aint.gonna.happen.)
Howlz what would be nice is a world where none of this matters and we see people as individuals in the first place. But God gave us differences for a reason. #gettingoffmymlkingsoapboxnow but i think gwen paltrow and gwen brooks takes the cake. Howlz!
Oprah, played by Meryl Streep.
Solange as portrayed by Manny Paquiano had me spitting water on my computer screen…..at work…..with people looking…BWAHAHAHA!!
WINNER BY A KNOCKOUT!!!
Divine As Tyler Perry’s “MADEA”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_(performer)
Sandra Bullock as Alfre Woodard
Mandy Patinkin as Chris Rock
George Clooney as Morris Chesnut
I see some of these went all the way. I was mocking that next we’d have a Harriet Tubman biopic with the lead of Halle Berry, but I realize I wasn’t thinking large enough.
Am I the only one that sees a slight resemblance looking at Zoe Saldana & pics of a younger Nina Simone? Something about the mouth….
As a dark-skinned Black woman, I get thoroughly sick of being under-represented in the media but I really want to believe this choice had reasoning behind it
The bottom line is that dark skinned women are so opressed they’ve become oppressors themselves.
How dare you try to dismiss this well qualified actress because you can’t see past your own feelings of inadequacy?
This is tired and keeps getting played out over and over again in the media. Dark skinned women attacking light skinned women.
Stop the hate.
I have seen a great deal of Zoe’s work. I am not against her doing the role because of the color of her skin. I am against it because her acting skill although good is not really up to chops.
As an action hero I get it.
Nina Simone means a lot of different things to people. As a singer, as an activist, as a woman of color. Yes there is some hating over how she “looks” in the role, but I chalk that up as when they cast people for comic book movie roles. People will loose their minds if the actor isn’t even close to what they know and love.
“Especially since they had to paint her face to get her to be the right color.” Actually, they painted her face and didn’t get anywhere close.
You ain’t lying there.
I am an Actor. I am a light to shmedium yellow and pink toned African girl with indistinguishable, lost in history blood lines, whose mama is paler than her but sure as shit is a born and raised Senegalese ass Cape Verdean. I’m the girl every kind of person sees fit to ask her race. At any given time. I’ve been sent on every role w rooms full of all kindsa girls. It’s a can be equally fascinating and frustrating being the token “exotic” curly girl. It’s a limbo of sorts, to be not enough of any one thing. The struggle can be real. As it is for most “other” girls in this business. Change gon’ come tho. I believe. All these brilliant and stunning packages us girls come in will be doin it and doin it and doin it well.
All this to say, I feel Zoe’s hustle… but I agree that she mighta shoulda backed out of this one. A biopic is a biopic. I think she works hard, but I don’t believe she has the chops for this. I believe there were better choices. As a matter of fact, I know. It won’t do to list em. What’s done is done. But …. this makes me anxious to watch like a scurry movie. Like I’ma have a twisted, funky tummy face the whole time.
Skin color is not like weight or eye color or hair or anything you can alter for appearances. It is rooted in far more than vanity. It has history and power and complexities should be respected when telling someone’s life story. Juss sayin.
Thank you Sarah D.; I salute you!”Skin color is not like weight or eye color or hair or anything you can alter for appearances. It is rooted in far more than vanity. It has history and power and complexities should be respected when telling someone’s life story.” This statement says it all. It is sad that some people are simplistically trying to characterize the backlash against this poor choice as “light-skin hate”. As far as I am aware Zoe Saldana has a strong black fan base, she plays black characters all of the time and is received well.
Zone has always considered and said she is a black woman. Acting like anything else gets better with time. I once actually bet money and said “Halle Berry is pretty but there is no Oscar in her future.” Well look at how that turned out. (I’m not trying to hate but I still can’t believe Halle has one and Ms. Angela B and Viola D don’t (#shakes head). Anywho Zoe worjs hard and if she deserved and won the part fair and ■ then so be it. She is a Sista and we should support her. At least it wasn’t Halle (I swear, no hate).