Originally posted by Ascension

The fact that they thought it would be a good idea to find a black woman of a completely different phenotype than Nina (especially considering the way Nina herself was in regards to her skin color and hair texture) and paint her skin and slap a lumpy afro wig on her is soooo ugh.

But the fact that even happened is just symptomatic of the rampant colorism that exists for black female entertainers. There are black actresses that could have done this role, appropriately like Adepero:



but the studios usually want a notable name, too and that's where it falls short -- that's sad and a problem in and of itself. If the pool of black actresses with big enough names in the proper black phenotype was too small, they could have considered singers, too -- like India Arie or this could have been an insane come back for Lauryn and gotten even more attention than Zoe. Anything but what they decided to do would have been better, honestly. This is a mess as it stands tho and it's so disrespectful. I personally won't be supporting the film.

Originally posted by B'Day

This is really disrespectful in all ways. Simone's daughter isn't happy about this film and is hoping fans don't see it. Why not just hire a dark skinned woman? Viola Davis for instance.