Alexandra Shipp has made it clear that she will not back down when she’s accused of being part of the colorism problem in Hollywood.
The biracial actress has been getting flak for portraying Storm since the iconic comic book character is known for her dark skin and ties to Africa.
In a recent interview with Glamour, Alexandra talked pretty tough about her critics and possibly shaded Zoe Saldana in the process.
In the interview, Alexandra said the following:
[I tweeted back] at people who criticized me for not having dark enough skin for my role in X-Men because we’re not going to have this conversation about a cartoon character. You’re not going to tell me that my skin color doesn’t match a Crayola from 1970. Growing up, when I was reading the comics, I pictured her looking like me. For any black girl, for there to be a black superhero, we picture them looking like us. So when I auditioned for the role, I wasn’t like, “Oh man, I’m not dark enough.” I was like, “Finally, this is my moment.” I’m not playing Harriet Tubman with a prosthetic nose and darkening my skin tone. I would never do that.
The time is up for people in this industry being opinionless…. If I was sitting here giving you all the answers you wanted to hear, keeping my political [beliefs] to myself, I would be acting. And that would be a really boring interview.
As you may recall, Zoe got a lot of backlash for portraying Nina Simone in a biopic because she darkened her skin and used a prosthetic nose.
