get these nets
Veteran
Did Forrest Whitaker had black face on, for the movie the Last King of Scotland
I think the criticism went beyond blackface (dark makeup) for Zoe.
I don't know if you've ever seen a biopic about Adam Clayton Powell starring "Dresser" from the Five Heartbeats.
The actor is a light complexioned man, but to play ACP they lightened his skin considerably and changed his hair for the part
In both cases, the leads were great actors who had similar body types and features with the real life men. Makeup was used to make them appear more like the people.
Zoe doesn't have any physical similarity with Nina Simone. She doesn't have the acting chops where you can ignore that she looks nothing like Nina. The makeup, prosthetics, and padding couldn't hide that.
Avatar made her a bankable star, and some team of producers thought that they could pull it off. They failed miserably.