By Jasmine Washington
After all of the hoopla surrounding Zoe Saldana’s portrayal of Nina Simone in the controversial Nina biopic, it is safe to assume the actress knows a thing or two about being on the wrong side of a popular opinion. With her expertise on the matter Saldana is back in the headlines for her assessment of how Hollywood treated Donald Trump’s presidential victory.
“We got cocky and became arrogant and we also became bullies,” she explained during an interview with the AFP. “We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong… and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises.”
While Saldana did not speak out in support of the president-elect’s highly criticized offensive behavior, her comments were perceived to have been in defense of Trump, and many Twitter users were not here for it.
Zoe Saldana is only talking about us "bullying" Trump because she got dragged for years for starring in that awful "Nina" movie. Oh well.
— Kimberly N. Foster (@KimberlyNFoster) January 14, 2017
Atlanta A&T gotta take away Zoe Saldana's fictional degree. She stay disgracing that prestigious imaginary university. pic.twitter.com/fXbPESACZu
— Ol' QWERTY Bastard (@TheDiLLon1) January 14, 2017
Zoe Saldana, so ur defending Donald Trump now, ur the exact opposite of what Nina Simone represented & this is why no 1 wanted u 2 play her pic.twitter.com/PcWJ3UOiXw
— ♐Skin of Becky♐ (@IKilledBecky) January 14, 2017
Zoe Saldana is the same person who said she couldn't complain about racism in Hollywood because her president is Black. https://t.co/HSeMoqByQ5
— Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick) January 14, 2017
@IKilledBecky @zoesaldana calling out Trump for his lies and abhorrent behavior is not bullying; it's defending those he has abused
— Luis Burgos (@Vorykua72) January 14, 2017
Zoe Saldana said hollywood bullied trump but trump has been bullying people all over the United States
— Imjustinwilson (@Imjustinwilson) January 14, 2017
Floyd Mayweather
Jennifer Holliday
Steve Harvey
Kanye West
Don King
Omarosa Manigault
Ray Lewis
Jim Brown
Zoe Saldana pic.twitter.com/z1hsmdDDHB— Hennsuke Nakamura (@BlackIce392) January 14, 2017
The Guardians of the Galaxy star concluded by saying she’d learned a lot of “humility” from Trump’s victory and stressed the importance of education and equality.