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Lifetime had a bit of a scramble when they had to replace Zendaya in thier new Aaliyah biopic, but the search is over Nickelodeon star Alexandra Shipp will take over in the role.One of the films executive producers Wendy Williams revealed the news on Twitter.”I’m excited to exec produce the Aaliyah @lifetimetv movie w/ @DebraMChase. Prod starts later this month and @AlexShipppp will play Aaliyah.”
Zendaya dropped out of the film last month amid a ton of backlash against her, but she says that’s not why she dropped out and congratulated Alexandra on the role. Zendaya took to Instagram to explain her side of the story. “Let me just explain something. The reason why I chose not to do the Aaliyah movie had nothing to do with the haters or the people telling me I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t talented enough, or I wasn’t black enough. The main reasons were the production value wasn’t there, 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 morally OK with moving forward with the project.”
She continued, “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 hate 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.”
So what do you think of the Shipp taking over as Aaliyah in the new biopic?
Photo from PR Photos
