Nina Simone is Not Feeling so Good

Alongside the endless number of reboots, prequels and sequels, Hollywood loves a good biopic. We’ve seen Harry Truman, Stephen Hawking, as well as Linda Lovelace and Ghandi all brought to life on the silver screen. However, due to the personal nature of the films, there’s often some controversy behind these biopics, whether it’s to do with the skewing of events, romanticizing the person or the casting. Nina Simone’s upcoming biopic is no exception. Since its first reveal, critics have slammed the film for its casting, claiming that actress Zoe Saldana is not “black enough” to portray the dark-skinned singer. This seems to be fuel for the recent #Oscarssowhite controversy.

Generally, when it comes to casting roles for the big screen, I firmly believe that the role should go to the best man or woman fit for the job. It doesn’t matter what colour your skin is or your gender, as long as the portrayal of the character is rich and compelling. For instance, when you look at some of the recent castings that have diverged from the person or source material, you get something like Idris Elba and his fantastic performance in Thor as the Viking gatekeeper, Heimdall. And I for one remember the outcry and concern from ardent Batman fans when it was discovered that pretty boy Heath Ledger had been cast as the mad Joker in The Dark Knight. In these cases Hollywood has taken a ‘risk’, by diverging from the material and the results have been fantastic. The risk paid off.

However, these aforementioned characters are of course fictional. A figment of a writer’s imagination; whereas Nina Simone is not. She was an icon with a larger than life personality. She also happened to be dark skinned, with a flat nose and big lips - features which Hollywood has continued to dodge for years. While Saldana is a fantastic actress with plenty of range, critics claim she has effectively whitewashed Simone as she is too light-skinned. This may be a fair assumption as it would seem that given Hollywood’s history, Zaldana was cast by Hollywood as a means of casting a black actress without casting a black actress. Or in other words, she was the ‘safe’ option. The median.

Of course this raises a number of issues, the main being representation of dark-skinned women. As we all know, any lack of representation of minorities can have an adverse effects on those minorities. I did a quick Google for a bit more info on the film and found an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates on the subject. It was quite a depressing read, the author describes growing up with “nappy hair” and big lips and how she felt as though she had a physical defect. She goes on to state how shameful it is that “even today, Nina Simone would have trouble being cast as in her own biopic.” A profoundly sad but true statement.

So what can be done? Casting a woman that looks like Nina Simone would be a good start. Hollywood needs to start taking bigger risks with their films. They’re playing it too safe. Take a leap.

Article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/nina-simone-face/472107/