Becoming Nina

Becoming Nina 

 

There has been a lot of controversy recently over the upcoming biopic Nina. Zoe Saldana, a light skinned black woman has been cast to play Nina Simone, who was dark skinned. When I first heard of this casting choice I didn't think much of it, though Saldana looks nothing like Simone, it seemed to stick with Hollywood's practice of taking significant artistic license with historical portrayals. I mean I guess I was just happy they didn't cast Gwyneth Paltrow. But my opinion changed when I took the time to think about it and read articles like this one;

'Zoe Saldana in dark make-up is no way to represent Nina Simone onscreen'

To understand fully the Saldana casting controversy, we need to talk about colourism. Colourism is discrimination based on skin colour, this sounds as if it could be used interchangeably with racism but where racial categories -the basis of racism- do not necessarily rely on the physical hue of ones skin, colourism confronts and discusses the hierarchy of skin colour itself. Here is a good description of colourism by Trina Jones;

“With colorism, skin color does not serve as an indicator of race.

Rather, it is the social meaning afforded skin color itself that results

in differential treatment. For example, envision a situation in which

two individuals fall within the same race - one is milk chocolate

brown and the other is dark chocolate brown. Despite the fact that

both persons are members of the same race, one may receive superior

treatment based upon her skin color.”¹

The days of skull lumps and leg measuring as racial distinguishers have passed. I mean, I hope. We can surely agree that race has no biological standing, race is a construct. The attempts to pin down race as an unshakable 'truth' by many the old-white-dude scientist, theorist, whatever-ists, have proven little other than the pervasiveness of white supremacy. Yet the physical colour of our skin, though arbitrary to race, mean something within our social context. However ambiguous and illusive, our bodies are used as signifiers of our place in the world. This is where race and colour overlap into a complex system of meaning, and as much as we may like to not acknowledge it, the colour of our skin does matter.


Jones also describes how colourism is 'interracial', where it is committed between racial groups, and 'intraracial', where it is practiced within a racial group.² The idea of colourism is important when thinking about the implications of Zoe Saldana being cast to play Nina Simone. Simone was an icon for black civil rights at the time, she was famous for embracing her blackness and being “unapologetically black”, an example of strategic essentialism. The life of Simone was greatly effected by not only being a black woman, but by being a dark-skinned black woman. Her dark skin, in a social context meant she was treated differently. White supremacy though often discussed in the binary, is incredibly pervasive, it seeps out into a complex web, which effects not only how people see others but how they see themselves.


Casting Saldana may have been less of an issue if the production hadn't decided to darken her skin with make up as well as have her wear a prosthetic nose. The erasure of dark-skinned black women in Hollywood has been a huge problem, and the decision to not only cast a lighter-skinned woman but to then have her essentially wear black-face highlights how we still have an issue with colour. Saldana is an excellent actress and would be amazing in many roles, but when casting someone to play an icon like Simone you need to understand the historical and societal context you are working within. Surely it is an insult to Simone's legacy to perpetuate the injustices she so passionately fought.

1Trina Jones, 'Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color', Duke Law Journal, 49, 200, pp.11.

2Ibid., pp.13