Zendaya Excited To Honor Aaliyah, But Will The Family Let Her?

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After the news broke that Zendaya would be taking on the roll of Aaliyah in a new biopic, HollywoodLife.com caught up with the Disney star to find out she was so excited! However, the late singer’s family is reportedly not.

Zendaya Coleman is super excited to be taking on the roll of someone as talented as Aaliyah, in a new biopic. Meanwhile, a report just surfaced that Aaliyah’s family isn’t happy at all about the TV movie, and they’re angry that no one reached out to them first.

Aaliyah’s Biopic: Is The Family Upset?

Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s former manager and uncle claims the family is super upset that no one reached out to the family to ask about the movie being made, he told TMZ.

The film will start filming this summer, according to our sister site Variety, and will chronicle the life of Aaliyah, who passed away in 2001 in a plane crash. Barry told the site that the family plans to block any attempt by Lifetime to use any of her music and they have hired a lawyer to try and stop it from being made all together.

So, why are they upset? Apparently a TV movie is not big enough for Aaliyah — they would like to see a big film being made. We can’t say we blame them there.

Zendaya Can’t Wait To Play One Of Her Idols

HollywoodLife.com caught up with Zendaya the day the news broke about the biopic, and she couldn’t have been more excited about the news.

Aaliyah, along with Michael Jackson and Beyonce, is one of the 17-year-old Disney star’s biggest idols and musical influences, so being able to honor her short 22-year life is such an honor to her. She plans on working extremely hard to do the best job.

Well, hopefully the movie will still happen! What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Should the movie be made? Let us know your thoughts.

— Emily Longeretta
Follow @EmilyLongeretta

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Will: There was a casting for the role have you maybe stop to think that maybe not saying that it was Ms Price just wasnt’cutting it, I hope that a look-a-like hopefuling is not the only thing their looking for when casting, I would prefer skills over look any day, as for her not being black enough thats just plain out a stupid statement, come with somethig better please or at least wait to see the film, so then you can say she sucks at acting, that is would be more of a factual credible statement. But I doubt that would happen. Zendaya is a trained-professional actress not some look-a-like winning a contest.

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Zendaya deserves a chance to portray aaliyah. Aaliyah’s family &the producers dragged this sweet young lady in the middle of a greedy tug of war! Zendaya doesn’t deserve this hostility from the public disapproval.

i feel the same way and if they cast rihanna over her that wouldnt be right cause honestly rihanna cant sing like her nor dance

i personally don’t mind her playing Aaliyah. So what if she doesn’t look like her, did Jennifer Lopez look like Selena? it all comes down to the acting and if she can portray her well. Hopefully she does a good job.

You can all talk about how J’Lo portrayed Selena even though she didn’t look exactly like her…………….Obviously this is completely different, J’Lo and selena were both Latina! So the audience gets it. If this little pale skinned white girl plays Aaliyah ppl will think Aaliyah was white!!! And she wasn’t. I don’t care if this girls dad is Black, she has ZERO African American features and She looks like her WHITE mom! The role should go to (Lolita Price) She won the Aaliyah look-a-like contest! SHE SHOULD BE AALIYAH NOT SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE THEIR WHITE MOM! Wake up and quit helping hollywood whitewash out history and heritage.

You sir/madam are an idiot. Is your so called black president not black then? As he has a white mother too! And you wonder why ‘Murica is so behind the rest of the world. Pure ignorance, only see someone as “black” when they are at a high point.

JLO did kind of look like Selena but she ended up portraying her well. I am a HUGE Aaliyah fan and I was 16 when she died so I remember her more from than just the internet. I think Zendya should be given a chance. So please crawl back to the hole you came from and stop exposing the world to your foolishness

i feel yall portraying racism and thats not the case if you see the pics of zendaya she dosent look like her mom and if yall wanna see a full black person aahliyah not that dark and zendaya would do better then half them girls that was cast for the role she can sing and dance the color of you skin shouldnt matter its what you bring to the table

I honestly don’t think she should play Aaliyah but I also don’t think that in this day and time an actual Aaliyah movie would make a lot of money. She was definitely on of a kind and very extraordinary but she life was so short lived and there was not a lot that we know that took place in her life that audience really wants to see unless they get with the family and leek out a few things and participate. My personal opinion

Aaliyah just had something special about her and I agree that they should have a big movie not just a tv biopic .

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im really not happy that she is playing this role i just really feel like she does not look nothing like Aaliyah and im very disappointed smh

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