Zendaya Says Morals Forced Her to Drop Out of ‘Aaliyah’ Biopic

Zendaya

Over the weekend, Lifetime announced that they found a replacement to play Aaliyah in their upcoming biopic, due to Zendaya dropping out .

Nickelodeon actress Alexandra Shipp , who is best known for her role as KT Rush in the show House of Anubis , will play the R&B singer who was taken away from us too soon.

Zendaya took to instagram to speak about her reason for dropping out of the role. Take a look at what she had to say below.

On why she chose to drop from the film:

“Let me just explain something. The reason why I chose not to do the Aaliyah movie had nothing to do with the haters or people telling me I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t talented enough or I wasn’t black enough. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. The main reasons were the production value wasn’t there.”

On trying to connect with Aaliyah’s family:

“There were complications with the music rights. And I just felt like it wasn’t being handled delicately considering the situation. And I tried my best to reach out to the family on my own and I wrote a letter, but I was unable to do so. Therefore I felt not really morally okay with moving forward with the project.”

On Alexandra Shipp:

“With all that being said, congratulations to the new woman playing Aaliyah. I only hope that she does not have to deal with half the haters that I had to deal with. And remember that we are all human beings trying to do what we love to do. Let’s practice motivation and love, not discrimination and hate. Alright, [kisses].”

While I do appreciate Zendaya for dropping out of the movie, a part me of feels like she should have never agreed to it in the first place, especially since Aaliyah’s family is against it.

What about you?

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