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I don't really have too much a problem with it, if she plays the role well then it shouldn't really matter......Denzel is much darker than Malcolm X and that came out great. Obviously he;s a much more accomplished actor than Zoe but this will be interesting....let's wait till it comes out to cast judgment.
Hell they had to darken Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland and there was no real outrage there
The issue people have with the selection doesn't completely revolve around skin complexion. Zoe having features that actually are seen as attractive (straight hair, slim body, lighter skin) was the reason why people were disgruntled about it. Nina Simone, as a woman in this country, had more pressure to succumb to standards of beauty a lot more than a man. Her having course hair, really dark skin, and not having an ideal body weight, especially as a black woman in the mid-20th century, shaped her identity. With selecting Zoe, many felt it was promoting the very ideologies that outcasted women who look like Nina in the first place, decades ago, and outcastes them to this day.
Yeah I can definitely understand it coming from that perspective and the issues some people would have with that and Nina Simone's personal experiences..I just think if she really is dedicated to the role and respects the struggles that Ms. Waymon had to go through in her entire life and can deliver a great performance that honors a part of her life then I guess I feel that should be equally as important, she can't help her personal looks and they did try and alter her appearance to make her look more like Nina...now there definitely are other actresses who fit Nina's physical appearance better out there who people mentioned that are extremely capable actresses in their own rights, but I can see why the studio would want to take a "name", its just unfortunately a part of the business and Zoe's name could probably bring in more of an audience.
However I do think the much much bigger issue is that the surviving family, including her own daughter were not contacted or invited in any capacity to participate or contribute in any way with the story or the making of this movie...that gives me some more doubt about the project