Lenny Kravitz will be playing Marvin Gaye in an upcoming biopic about the legendary crooner, but Marvin’s son is begging Lenny to drop the “shameful” role.
This is Lenny’s big break – his first major leading role – so you would think his childhood friend would be happy for him right? Not quite.
Marvin Gaye III is begging Lenny to drop the role and is even taking legal action to stop the film’s production.
According to the “Lets Get It On” singer’s son, the film doesn’t give an actual depiction of the man his father really was. Instead it just focuses on “a low period” in his father’s life.
“The producers and directors of this film are very wrong and shameful,” Gaye’s son told TMZ. “…They’re trying to do a film about a low period in his life. They don’t even know the whole story.”
In other words, the biopic is simply cashing in on the rough times that Marvin Gaye went through rather than truly focusing on telling his life’s story.
Lenny Kravitz went to school with Marvin Gaye III and both men claim they are still close friends to this day which is why Marvin’s son is waiting for Kravitz to explain himself.
“I would hope [Lenny] doesn’t have any idea that we are against this film being done,” Marvin’s son added, hoping that his former schoolmate simply wasn’t aware of how shameful the movie was and that he wasn’t also trying to cash in on his father’s mistakes.
The “I Belong To You” singer doesn’t have too much time to make up his mind on whether or not he will follow through with his first leading role or not.
Filming is scheduled to begin next year.
While the biopic truly is focused on the early 1980s when the “Sexual Healing” crooner was battling drug addictions in Europe and trying to restart his then crumbling career, rumors are suggesting that this may be the first truly successful film based on the iconic singer’s life.
According to the Rolling Stone, the upcoming film has managed to obtain rights to Gaye’s music – making it the first movie about Marvin that has the right to use his original music.
Kravtiz is going to have to choose between a friend or jump starting his career as a leading actor, although he has taken on several supporting roles in films such as “The Hunger Games” and “Precious.”
Marvin Gaye III isn’t the first celeb child to speak out against their parent’s biopic.
Nina Simone’s daughter also spoke up about her mother’s biopic a few weeks ago when controversy arose over the casting of Zoe Saldana to play her mother.
The petite actress who has Latino heritage looks nothing like the Civil Rights activist and “High Priestess of Soul” who actually faced much adversity because of the color of her skin and the way she looked.
Instead of hiring an actress who has felt the same hurt that Simone experienced, film producers went for the exact opposite and decided to put Zoe Saldana in “blacker” face with a prosthetic nose so she would resemble the jazz legend.
Nina Simone’s daughter has been begging producers to drop the tiny framed, slender nose, light skinned actress in order to hire the woman her mother had always wanted to play her in a film – Whoopi Goldberg.
Online petitions have surfaced since, but filmmakers are continued to move forward with Zoe in cheap makeup and a plastic nose.
