For years, filmmaker Cynthia Mort sought to bring Nina Simone’s story to the screen, yet when the door finally opened, a wave of anticipation and controversy mounted before production even began.
The upcoming film Nina, aimed for release this year, will be Mort’s first feature length film project, and the first narrative centered on the famed singer and civil rights activist, played by A-list actress Zoe Saldana.
The choice to cast Saldana stands at the center of a debate over the film. Those displeased with Saldana’s selection have petitioned for Mort to recast the part. Celebrities such as India.Arie, Aretha Franklin, and even Simone’s daughter (a noted jazz singer) have voiced concerns over the choice.
Critics feel that Saldana does not adequately resemble Simone, who was known for celebrating her strong African features.
Director: Surprised by backlash
Mort is not offended by the backlash, only surprised. She wants the public to give Nina a chance.
“This was a creative endeavor, and to judge and to hijack a creative endeavor before it’s finished is the only thing I take any issue with,” the director told theGrio. “When it’s done you can say whatever you want.”
Yet, Mort understands the public’s need to share strong emotions about Nina‘s casting. It’s something the diva would have done herself.
“It’s fine. They should,” she said. “Nina was about how you feel. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was about some of the stuff that’s going on, but that’s not my business,” Mort added.
Rehashing the backlash
Nina Simone constantly stressed the beauty of her African attributes, and chronicled her struggle towards accepting that beauty in her work.
With her Dominican and Puerto Rican roots, Saldana’s narrow features and light skin tone require her to use dark makeup and a prosthetic nose to embody the musician.
Some believe these acts contradict Nina Simone’s message as an artist who was outspoken against colorism, discrimination based on skin tone favoring lighter blacks.
As prospects for black actresses with deep brown skin tend to be fewer than for those with paler complexions, some believe that by not selecting a darker actress to play a deep brown woman, this movie hypocritically fails to counter colorism when it would have been the most appropriate to do so.
Acknowledging dissenting voices
Mort acknowledges these voices with sensitivity, but emphasized that her story of Simone is not a “strict biopic.” It is more about the love connection and relationships that fueled her life. For that nuanced portrayal, Saldana was an ideal choice.
“Zoe’s life vision is very clear, and very strong and very direct,” Mort said of Saldana. “She’s a fantastic actress. She’s brave. She’s courageous and she’s super-talented. She’s astonishing in all of her films, which I don’t say lightly. I think Zoe embodies a lot of the characteristics [that] I was looking for. She’s compelling and she’s fierce and she’s strong and she pulls us in the way Nina’s music pulls us in. You know what? That’s hard to come by.”
Addressing critics specifically, Mort said, “What everyone has to remember is that ‘Four Women,’ which everyone has to remember is one of [Nina’s] most powerful songs, is about different shades of four different women.”
Saldana’s tone and our potential acceptance of her tone in this role might be in alignment with Nina’s message of acknowledging the rainbow hues of black women in this song, Mort suggests.
Why Zoe Saldana was the right choice
Mort understands why the color issue is vital, but does not see herself as the spokesperson for that angle of Nina’a story. “So, I don’t want to minimize at all the place Nina holds for many women – women of color, all women, all people, all minorities. But you go with whom you think can best do the performance the role requires.”
Zoe is the best actress for this more emotional performance, Mort believes.
“There are different considerations all the time, but I think Nina’s more than just one thing,” she explained. “She was about not defining people by their color and about being proud, but I don’t want to speak for those things because that’s a very private feeling for people. It’s not up for me to do that.”
Working with a small budget and supported by a determined team, Mort and Saldana seem grateful that the project has at last come to fruition.
“It’s been interesting, but I feel very good about it,” Mort said.
All press is good press, says producer — so keep talking
Executive-produced by Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine, Shady Records’ head Paul Rosenberg, and film veteran Gene Kirkwood, Nina will focus on Simone’s growth as an artist as it parallels her music.
As Kirkwood sees it, the movie will likely benefit from the negative attention Saldana’s casting has spawned.
“Every knock is a boost for me,” Kirkwood told theGrio. Kirkwood has also produced Rocky, Get Rich or Die Tryin,’ and New York, New York, among other films.
“People don’t like anything. If Jesus Christ walked in here right now, they’d say, ‘Great carpenter, but terrible guy.’ They’ll find something about everything. There’s nothing positive until they see it,” he said. “Diana Ross was as close to Billie Holiday as you can get, but when [Lady Sings the Blues] came out, they were worried about that[.] With Rocky they said, ‘Who wants to see a fight movie?’ You had to get them in there. There was only one fight in the whole movie. The picture is eventually going to have to make its own track no matter what. But I think every knock is a boost, as long as they’re talking about it.”
Like Rocky, which initially opened in only three theaters but became a cult classic, Kirkwood believes a small budget picture like Nina, made for between five and six million dollars on a 24-day shoot, will significantly benefit from word of mouth.
He welcomes the early attention it’s getting, despite the adverse messaging.
Mort agreed. “We are going to get eyes right?” she said. “Good, bad, or indifferent. It’s a big thing to take on, but I’m glad there’s going to be a movie about Nina Simone.”
New developments: Will Dr. Dre score the film?
Currently in post-production, the next steps for Nina include creating a score that captures Simone’s dynamism. Kirkwood hopes to secure an extremely heavyweight producer for the task.
“If we can get Dr. Dre involved, it could be very modern arrangements” that make up the score for Nina, Kirkwood said. “He’s going to see a rough cut in about a week and a half. I would love for him to do what Quincy did with In the Heat of the Night and [what] Quincy did with In Cold Blood. Quincy did a lot of scoring. I would love if Dre’s next step would be to score it. That would be a great challenge.”
Kirkwood is thinking bigger still. He has connected with an online broadcast network known as Bite Size TV based in Silicon Valley to do tie-in promotions for Nina. Kirkwood will build awareness about the movie through sharing scenes and interviews with online audiences, allowing people to discover Nina before it comes to theaters.
“When you see the picture, [Nina] had a lot of other problems going on,” Kirkwood said. “This examines her as a person, as a human being, what she had to go through in her love life to make her music and to get her music heard, and it’s a part of her life that was very misunderstood[.]”
Helping audiences give Nina a shot
Nina will look at her as a singer, as a woman, and as a complex being discovering inner truths through love and personal conflict. Plus, there will be a focus on Simone’s mental and emotional struggles.
“Nina was bipolar,” Kirkwood continued. “She was kind of out there, and it’s about this relationship with this male nurse she picked up at Cedars, and he didn’t know what he was getting into.”
Online marketing will give the film “a shot,” he believes, by helping audiences preview her life narrative in a new light.
“I would have made this movie if it wasn’t Nina,” Kirkwood said. “If you had just given me this script and it was just complete fiction, and she had never existed, I would have said, ‘Yeah, let’s make this movie.’ It’s almost like The English Patient. It’s not what you think it’s going to be.”
What does Kirkwood hope audiences will take away from Nina?
“I want them to come out wrecked in a good way,” he said. “That’s how I always saw it, that was my drive. From now on when you hear Nina’s music, you’ll really listen to it.”
The director’s hopes for Nina
For her directorial debut, Mort does not want to take on the entire legacy of Nina Simone. She only wants to illustrate an important facet of it that everyone can relate to, which also shaped her artistry indelibly: her little-known love life.
“In an interview, a version of which we used, Nina said, ‘Sometimes people forget that I’m a woman, and I sing as many love songs as I do,’ and I think that’s a really important quote,” Mort explained. “Her civil rights stance comes from not only her uncompromising belief in civil rights, and her belief in strength and power for everyone, but I think it also comes […] from a need to be heard, and a need to be seen and the power of words, which she took very seriously, which you hear in all of her music. And I think that’s a very interesting quality.”
Mort stresses that the movie does not reveal all the days, nights, laughter, tears and turmoil that brought Simone to the forefront of the music business and Civil Rights Movement. Instead, it serves as a window capturing moments that empowered her heart.
“I like a lot of things that [the film] says about being an artist, about being a woman, about that brilliance, about love,” Mort mused. “It’s clearly not a biopic as much as I think Nina Simone is amazing… I liked her life. I liked what she stood for. I liked that she’s uncompromising… I was taking on something else that I felt was universal to everybody. That doesn’t take anything away from who she is or who she was.
“I hope people see Nina,” Mort affirmed. “I hope they see her heart and her soul.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @courtgarcia