Why Lenny Kravitz as Marvin Gaye Is a Better Idea Than Zoe
Saldana as Nina Simone  Slate's Culture Blog Nov. 28 2012 3:01
PM  What’s Going On? Is Lenny Kravitz Really Too Light to Play
Marvin Gaye?  Marvin Gaye and Lenny Kravitz. Marvin Gaye and
Lenny Kravitz.  Album art, left; photo, right, by Tullio M.
Puglia/Getty Images.  Rocker-turned-actor Lenny Kravitz is set
to play Marvin Gaye in an upcoming biopic about the time the
Motown singer spent in Europe in the early 1980s. Kravitz, who
until now has had supporting roles—as in Precious and The Hunger
Games—has prompted criticism from some not for his acting
inexperience, though, but because he is not “dark enough” to
play Gaye. (Jesse L. Martin, who resembles Gaye far more than
Kravitz and has both the acting and singing chops to boot—he was
in the original Broadway cast of Rent—was supposed to play the
singer in another project, but that one has stalled.)  This is
only the latest accusation of Hollywood’s “colorism,” as seen
with the controversy surrounding