First, the NBA isn’t rushing to hold the All-Star game in China....
yuup!
konated
Before I proceed...I’m not in favor of H2. Its an unenforceable, stupid law that does more harm than any potential good.
That’s completely different, bro. China has a lot more money than North Carolina.
The other elephant in the room that wasn’t directly mentioned in this article is not just colorism, but features. Let’s face it, it is still more acceptable to have a Black woman whose features are more “white”. Its pretty clear in the pictures of Simone & Saldana at the top of the page, that apart from a difference…
Are there Zoe stans?
was just going to do the same thing. totally baffled by everything that surrounds this movie, but this piece was some damn good writing/reporting.
Ta-Nehisi Coates put it the best possible way in his editorial: the simple fact and tragedy of this film and the mentality behind it is that a young Nina Simone would not have been cast in a movie about her own life.
Along with Kara’s astute criticism above, there is also this: Zoe Saldana can’t act. I’m sure I’ll be taken to task by the teeming hordes of Zoe Saldana fans out there, but I think that there is enough objective evidence to support my opinion.
Funnily enough he was offered the role
Yeah, I was kinda giving the daughter side-eye at first...and then as more of the story unfolded and I realized what she had to live through, I was like, “Okay. Nevermind about judging you, I take it all back.” I can’t criticize the manner in which someone’s dealt with a life like that. Shit.
Speaking as a filmmaker, I hate, hate, hate it when fellow filmmakers use the “we’re telling a story” as a crutch for every decision they make, and a bullwark against every criticism. Not enough blacks in your movie? “Well we’re trying to tell a story...” The women in your movie are reductive caricatures with no lives…
Has Matt Damon weighed in on this casting issue yet?
OMG - bingo. I can understand being discriminated against only as a white woman. And until I am anything else (unlikely in this life) I better be damn careful claiming I “understand” someone else’s story.
I don’t know that white people can’t necessarily tell the stories of people of color, just as I know talented men can tell women’s stories and get it right.
Well-written.
The first person they wanted was Mary J Blige. Mary J Blige can’t act. This tells me they just wanted a name, any name. Quality be damned.
Luckily she is White. If she was any non-White hue, at minimum she would have been tased and beaten to a pulp; but, more likely would have been riddled with 5.56 and 9mm hollow-point.
Her attorney is garbage.
A spokesman for ESPN says they’ve been flooded with calls from white people overjoyed to see a black man rooting for them.
It’s like Alien vs. Predator but Legionnaire’s vs. Gonnorhea.