Zoe Saldana Delivers ‘Fantastic’ Singing in Upcoming Nina Simone Biopic

BY: Denver Sean

Published 12 years ago

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Zoe Saldana is giving everything she has in the controversial Nina Simone biopic set to hit theaters later this year. She’s even doing her own singing as she plays the late jazz great.

David Oyelowo, who costars with Saldana in the upcoming biopic Nina, says the Star Trek actress did an incredible job portrayingthe legendary jazz musician.

“I think a lot of people are going to be surprised of the sheer power of her,” Oyelowo told us at yesterday’s EssenceBlack women in Hollywood Luncheon. “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. “

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Saldana shows off her real-life vocal chops in the flick.

“She did do her own singing,” Oyelowo dished. “It was fantastic, surprisingly. Nina Simone is no joke in terms of her singing voice. I was pretty blown away.”

As for what Simone would think of Saldana’s portrayal of her?

Oyelowo said, “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.”

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Are you interested in hearing Zoe show off her vocal skills?

via E!

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