Actress Zoe Saldana is causing a stir on Black Twitter for her role as Nina Simone. Saldana was selected to take on the complexities of Nina Simone in a biopic that premieres April 22nd. The official trailer was released this week to a heavy amount of criticism.

The official Twitter account for Nina Simone blasted Zoe back in 2012 when it was announced that she’d play her. Their Tweet read, “Please take Nina’s name out your mouth. For the rest of your life.” The sentiments from Nina’s team is still the same… four years later. “Hopefully people begin to understand this is painful. Gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, nauseating, soul-crushing. It shall pass, but for now…”

 

Not only is Nina Simone’s people are pissed off that the director chose Zoe, many of singers fans finds it absurd as well.

From the looks of the trailer, Zoe seems to have done a great job actually capturing the attitude, character of Nina Simone. The questionable part is the Black-face makeup and the fact that Zoe isn’t a singer. The makeup, however, causes a big red flag in that it’s almost of mockery of Nina Simone’s beautiful dark skin and ethnic facial features. There are other actress/singers that could have “looked the part” way better than Zoe.

What are your thoughts on Zoe Saldana playing Nina Simone?