Zoe Saldana to Star in Nina Simone Biopic: Sparks 'Skin' Controversy, Actress 'Too Light' to Play High Priestess of Soul

Reports confirm that director Cynthia Mort has cast Afro-Latina actress Zoe Saldana to star as the High Priestess of Soul in a highly-anticipated, upcoming Nina Simone biopic entitled "Nina." The recent casting announcement has sparked much controversy over the color of Saldana's skin - many critics believe that while the "Avatar" star is a very talented actress, her skin is much too light (especially in consideration of "traditional" Hollywood beauty standards) to portray the turbulent and remarkable life of the late jazz songstress and Civil Rights activist.

Simone produced many popular hits between the 1950s-1970s, several which are still heard on movie soundtracks and commercials today, including "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "Sinnerman," and "I Put a Spell on You." Simone, who passed away in 2003, was also a leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement.

Popular hip-hop/R&B songstress Mary J. Blige was originally slated to play Simone in the biopic, but pulled out after filming was repeatedly delayed. Director Mort then cast beautiful Saldana (who starred alongside Britney Spears in the 2002 film "Crossroads") for the lead role.

But many believe that Saldana's Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage is completely wrong for the part. One Simone fan (who goes by Indai.Arie) wrote on the songstress' official website:

"So today I saw the images of Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone...AND I THINK THEY ARE RIDICULOUS. Yes there should be a movie made, and YES they should have chosen someone who LOOKS like Nina Simone, ESPECIALLY since her RACE played such a PIVOTAL role in WHO, WHAT and WHY, she was... That ASIDE for a second, this just looks WEIRD, it looks like a person in Black(er) face with a fake nose....REALLY?!!!!"

(Even so, India.Arie hopes that Zoe's "obvious admiration of Nina" means that she can "pull off the portrayal energetically.")

YouTube user Erica Renee posted a rather angry video about the casting decision, stating - "It's like super-disrespectful to cast an ethnically ambiguous person to portray a woman who battled the industry's distaste for her dark skin, and her natural hair and her thick features."

Lanita Jacobs, who teaches anthropology at the University of Southern California, thinks that by casting the fair-skinned Saldana and darkening her with makeup, giving her a prosthetic nose, and plopping on an Afro wig would be particularly offensive to women who struggle with acceptance based solely on the color of their skin - "We understand that there are these beauty issues, and sometimes what sanctions people's right to speak on these kind of issues is whether they have had experiences born of what it means to have kinky hair, or to have wide noses or darker skin. Nina's music taps into a certain kind of awareness born of the way she looks."

Simone's own daughter (actress Simone Kelly) doesn't believe Saldana is right for the part either - she recently told the New York Times, "My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark. Appearance-wise [Saldana] is not the best choice." Kelly once said her mother always wanted Whoopi Goldberg to portray her if a movie was ever made about her life.

Many fans agree - an online petition has since been launched calling on writer-director Cynthia Mort to "replace Zoe Saldana with an actress who actually looks like Nina Simone."