- This makeup!
- Sorry, my titties are sweating, I'm so mad.
(blues music)
- I am actually a really big fan of Nina Simone.
- She went through hell and back
for being a darker skinned black woman.
- She really channeled all that into her music.
- And just her word, just listening to her words
outside of the music itself is poetry.
- I'm super concerned.
- I don't know that she has the spirit to do this.
- I haven't watched the trailer for that same reason,
(chuckles) 'cause I knew I was gonna be upset
as soon as I saw it.
- Although I love Zoe and I do love Nina,
I am not too keen on this matchup.
- Alright, I'm gonna be optimistic.
Let's just, let's see what happens.
- Okay, she's singing.
- Is she really singing?
I didn't know she could sing.
- So, basically, this is her after she's, like,
fallen from glory.
- I like that her hair textures
look natural and all of that.
- This makeup!
- I think what's also really hard about this
is the juxtaposition of the black guy that they have
that's the lead because you can just see the richness
and the realness of his tone and, in comparison to her,
she just looks so fake.
- I feel like if David kissed her or something, like,
her whole face would come off or somethin'.
- I just wonder what, what this is on her face
that made it so dark?
- I am so distracted by how greasy she looks.
- I feel like this is just really disresectful.
- I don't even think that this sounds like her,
to be honest.
- She sounds like Columbiana in blackface.
- There's all these quotes where it's like,
she fought for her music, and I'm just like, she also
fought for her image.
- This is making me really sad.
(grooving music)
- The did I just watch?
- Just, no, I don't know how to say no in so many ways,
but it just felt wrong and it was wrong.
- A lot of the crazy that we see in the trailer,
she's like throwing things, a lot of the anger.
- Was because she was this darker skinned woman.
- This is just a general disappointment.
- I'm getting so emotional, I'm sorry.
- Do not get me wrong,
I think Zoe Saldana is a great actress.
- But nobody's gonna be able to focus on how great
of an actor she is in this movie if she's in blackface.
- I'd never think that in this day and age
that I would have to look at something like this.
- You can get someone who's that skin tone
who is a good actress!
- But I also think that putting all of the blame on her
is too easy.
Be mad at Zoe if you want to, but I definitely think
that we as a collective need to start questioning Hollywood,
we need to start questioning places like RLJ Entertainment.
- They really should have asked someone.
They should have consulted Nina Simone's family.
- What does it say about my place in the world
as a Black female
if the roles that are made for me,
the stories you want to tell are about me
and I can't even play them.
- Get a panel of black Twitter
and they can tell you if it's okay or not.