Nina Simone estate slams ‘Nina’ star Zoe Saldana on Twitter

Simone’s estate fired back “Cool story but please take Nina’s name out of your mouth”.

The estate of Nina Simone took umbrage with a quote tweeted by actress Zoe Saldana, who will portray the late singer in a controversial, upcoming biopic. Since the project was announced, it has been surrounded by controversy, mainly over the choice to cast Zoe Saldana as Simone.

Simone’s official Twitter account, which is run by the estate of the singer, responded to the actress, along with several retweets of folks criticizing the film.

In 2013 Nina Simone’s own daughter, Simone Kelly, voiced her disapproval in the New York Times.

“It’s disrespectful and demonstrates the depth of the ignorance of the person making the film of the very subject of the film”, she said.

Simone’s estate continued their attack, retweeting fans who were equally outraged, before admitting the experience with the film has been “painful”. Gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, nauseating, soul-crushing.

“I didn’t think I was right for the part, and I know a lot of people will agree, but then again, I don’t think Elizabeth Taylor was right for Cleopatra either”, she said. A Netflix documentary about Simone’s life, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” was nominated for an Oscar this year but lost out to “Amy”, about late singer Amy Winehouse.

Robert L. Johnson, founder and chairman of the studio releasing “Nina“, describes Saldana’s performance as “an exceptional and mesmerizing tribute”.

After many delays, the Nina Simone biopic starring Saldana and David Oyelowo will be simultaneously released in theaters, digital HD and video-on-demand next month.

“The most important thing is that creativity or quality of performance should never be judged on the basis of color, or ethnicity, or physical likeness”, Johnson, also the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), said in a statement.