Zoe Saldana’s blackface controversy has remerged after the actress received her first Oscar nod last week. 

The star is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rita Mora Castro in the musical crime drama Emilia Perez. 

However while Zoe celebrates her nomination, fans have taken to Twitter to share their horror after her blackface controversy from 2016 resurfaced when she played Nina Simone in the singer’s biopic. 

The actress, who is a light-skinned woman of Puerto Rican, Dominican and Haitian descent, wore a full bodysuit, prosthetic nose, dark makeup and false teeth to play Simone. 

Taking to Twitter one fan shared a snap of Zoe in the film as they penned: ‘it’s insane that she did this and I’ll never forget it!!! sorry’.

A second wrote: ‘Today I learned that Zoe Saldana played Nina Simone in a movie where she did it in blackface, this was only in 2016!’

Zoe Saldana’s blackface controversy has resurfaced as fans exclaimed ‘it’s insane that she did this’ just days after the actress received her first Oscar nomination for Emilia Pérez

The star is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rita Mora Castro in the musical crime drama Emilia Perez (pictured at the Golden Globes earlier this month) 

Sharing their shock at Zoe’s decision to darken her skin for the role, others wrote: ‘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….’;

‘mannnnnn’; ‘Can’t believe she still has a career tbh, this was crazy’; ‘No way’; ‘MY GOD’. 

‘i can’t believe she ever worked again after doing this and how hard she defended it at the time’. 

Zoe, who filmed the role in 2012 before the film’s was released four years later, came under fire for the role at the time of the film’s release.

Simone’s estate condemned the casting on Twitter, urging Saldana to ‘take Nina’s name out of your mouth for the rest of your life’. 

Simone’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, also said that the project was ‘not how you want your loved ones remembered.’

Talking about the part at the time of the film’s release, she admitted:  ‘It was a big learning experience for me.’

She told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time: ‘I’m happy that we are talking about this matter as a human society, as an American society, as an artistic society.’ 

Taking to Twitter one fan shared a snap of Zoe in the film as they penned: ‘it’s insane that she did this and I’ll never forget it!!! sorry’

Sharing their shock at Zoe’s decision to darken her skin for the role, others wrote: ‘It’s so crazy to do all this, rather than just hiring a dark skin actress???

The actress, who is a light-skinned woman of Puerto Rican, Dominican and Haitian descent, wore a full bodysuit, prosthetic nose, dark makeup and false teeth to play Simone

Simone’s estate condemned the casting on Twitter, urging Saldana to ‘take Nina’s name out of your mouth for the rest of your life’

Simone’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, also said that the project was ‘not how you want your loved ones remembered’ (Nina pictured in 1969)  

Read More ‘It was a big learning experience’: Zoe Saldana speaks out after being accused of going ‘blackface’ to play singer Nina Simone because she’s ‘not naturally dark enough’

Addressing her hateful critics she added: ‘Being violent, and hateful, and judgmental about another person … Being hateful and negative will not solve the situation.’

Speaking to Allure magazine she also said: ‘There’s no one way to be black’. 

‘I’m black the way I know how to be. You have no idea who I am. I am black. I’m raising black men. Don’t you ever think you can look at me and address me with such disdain.’

Later speaking about the role in 2020, Zoe admitted she ‘should never have played’ Nina as she broke down in tears. 

Crying in a Instagram live stream she admitted: ‘I should have never played Nina.

‘I should have done everything in my power with the leverage that I had 10 years ago – which was a different leverage but it was leverage nonetheless – I should have tried everything in my power to cast a black woman to play an exceptionally perfect black woman.’

She continued: ‘I thought back then that I had the permission because I was a black woman – and I am.

‘But it’s Nina, and Nina had a life and a journey that should be honoured to the most specific detail because she was a specifically detailed individual … She deserved better, and I am so sorry.’