Just days after Zoe Saldana celebrated her first Oscar nomination for Emilia Pérez, controversy has reignited online as fans revisit her past blackface scandal.
Amid celebrating her nomination, fans flooded to Twitter to share their horror after her blackface controversy from 2016 resurfaced when she played Nina Simone in the singer's biopic.
The light-skinned actress, who is of Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Haitian heritage, played Simone wearing a complete bodysuit, prosthetic nose, black makeup, and fake teeth.
One fan took to X(former Twitter), they wrote, “it’s insane that she did this and I’ll never forget it!!! sorry.”
Another added, “Today I learned that Zoe Saldana played Nina Simone in a movie where she did it in blackface, this was only in 2016!”
The third remarked, “ 'It's so crazy to do all this, rather than just hiring a dark skin actress??? It was 2016, it's not like there was a shortage of relevant dark skin actresses....”
The controversy started four years later after the film's release in 2012 for her role.
To note, Zoe earned the nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rita Mora Castro in the musical crime drama Emilia Perez.
