Zoe Saldana will face her critics when Nina finally comes out (reportedly before the end of the year), but she's getting an early start defending herself against those who feel she had no right to play Nina Simone.
In an interview with Latina magazine, Saldana emphasized how hard she worked to play the role. “I needed to walk her path. As a woman, it wasn’t difficult to empathize with another woman. But I needed to be very isolated," she says. "I moved out of my house for three months. I wasn’t really talking to anybody that I knew. I just needed to be all things Nina."
She also offers her insight into why the film has been on the shelf for three years. "It was so intense, and everything happened really fast," she explains. "The people behind the project weren’t my cup of tea. The director was fine, but there was a lot of mismanagement, which is why we’re still here three years later. And I’m still trying to fight with everybody to get the movie finished. Nina deserves better.”

We'll all have a chance to judge for ourselves when Nina finally hits theaters. In the meantime, watch Zoe share more thoughts on the film — and why other actresses turned the role down — in the interview below:

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