There quite a few raised eyebrows, when it was announced that Avatar actress Zoe Saldana would be playing Nina Simone in the biopic Nina. Some people publicly voiced their concerns about Zoe playing the lead role but she seems to have done a fairly good job. Zoe's co-star in the movie, David Oyelowo, has admitted that she was amazing and will blow the critics away.
Zoe Saldana plays Nina Simone
Oyelowo was chatting to E Online, when he explained, "I think a lot of people are going to be surprised of the sheer power of her. She went to work. She is a huge admirer of Nina Simone and that crept into what she did. She wanted to tell the truth and every day we were on that set, that's what I saw. She did do her own singing. It was fantastic, surprisingly... I was pretty blown away."
David added, "Al Shackman, who was her guitarist for many years was with us on set, and one of the things he said was that Nina would have loved the fact that we were telling her story as a love story because she was a big lover of love. And our film is basically a love story, so that was very heartening from someone who knew her for many, many years to say this is a rendition of a movie she would have loved."
Zoe is said to have been amazing
As well as starring Zoe Saldana and David Oyelowo, Nina also stars Alexa Davalos, Emma Thomas and Mike Epps. Nina is written and directed by Cynthia Mort and is set to be released sometime later this year.
Zoe Saldana behind the scenes
