Naturi Naughton has been on a media run promoting the latest season of POWER, in which she plays the no-nonsense Tasha St. Patrick. In the last week or so, she sat down with VH1’s Marc Lamont Hill who dug up ancient rumors of Lil Kim not approving of Naturi playing her in the Notorious B.I.G biopic, “Notorious.” Those rumors have now followed Naturi to yet another interview.
Naturi appeared on the new talk show, The Preachers, where she was asked about Lil Kim once again. This time, they specified that the rumor was Lil Kim did not like Naturi playing her because she was too dark. Naturi admits to hearing that rumor before, then talks a bit about colorism in Hollywood and its affects on her career.
“I feel like it’s an ongoing with people of color,” said Naturi. “It’s a real issue, even being an actress in Hollywood. It hurts when it has affected me. I was honored and proud and hoped that people enjoyed my portrayal of Lil Kim. That’s all I wanted to do. All I can say is, let’s hope that we can appreciate each other’s colors, our hues, our beauty, and our uniqueness. We should celebrate our beauty.”
I guess we’ll never get to the bottom of the Lil Kim vs. Naturi Naughton beef until Lil Kim addresses it, but in the case of colorism in the black community and Hollywood, I love Naturi’s approach. Love the beautiful skin that you’re in!
