First Photos Of Zoe Saldana As Nina Simone Surfaces

By Stan Castle | Published on October 22, 2012

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The first pictures of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone has hit the web and they’re definitely questionable. Well, one might say that the actress doesn’t favor the popular singer at all in the photos.

Saldana will play the leading role of the jazz singer and Nina is based on Simone’s 1992 autobiography “I Put A Spell On You”, which told the story of Simone’s relationship with her assistant, Clifton Henderson (David Oyelowo), that occurred in her later years.

Nina originally planned a career as a classical pianist, but was denied a scholarship to Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute Of Music because she was black. Dubbed the high priestess of soul, she rose to fame as a jazz singer and became a prominent member of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Her song “To Be Young, Gifted And Black” was an anthem of the movement. The Sinnerman star stopped paying taxes in the US as a protest against the Vietnam War, which made her an exile from the States in her later life. To avoid arrest, she settled in Barbados where she had a long relationship with its Prime Minister Errol Barrow. The singer also lived in Liberia, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and died in the South of France in 2003 (Wiki).

Singer Jill Scott recently commented on Saldana playing Nina and said:

Well Zoe is an incredible actress–I think that she’s a fine actress. I think that there should be some work done, like a prosthetic nose would be helpful and definitely some darker makeup. If Forest Whittaker can become darker in “The Last King Of Scotland” than I believe Nina should be treated with that respect. She was very adamant about her color about her nose about her shape and her self and there needs to be some homage paid to that.

Give your opinion of the first pictures of Zoe as Nina and express if Hollywood did a good job casting this role. More photos on next page.

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