A recent biopic about the life of musician Aaliyah went under fire from critics and viewers alike. A storm of criticism from Twitter came down on the creators of the Aaliyah biopic and its executive producer, Wendy Williams. Despite all the hate for Aaliyah: Princess of R&B, Wendy Williams stands by the movie completely, claiming she has no regrets and would change nothing about the film.
According to Essence , Williams is actually quite proud of the success the Aaliyah film has brought, even if the viewers didn’t enjoy what they were seeing. Deadline reported that Aaliyah: Princess of R&B drew more than 3.2 million viewers the night it premiered on Lifetime . And, as they say, all press is good press – and Wendy Williams seems to subscribe to that notion. She spoke about the reaction to the Aaliyah biopic:
“I see my Aaliyah movie broke the Internet this weekend,” Wendy said on her talk show. “Everybody’s got an opinion. Whether you loved it or hated it, you watched it. It was the second highest rated movie on cable this year… We all have opinions but I must say, if you still want to see the Aaliyah movie it comes on tonight at 8 o clock. And Alexandra Shipp, you did a great job as Aaliyah.”
Deadline pointed out that despite the high ratings, more people saw the negative Twitter feedback from the Aaliyah film than actually saw Aaliyah: Princess of R&B.
Wendy Williams might be the only one standing by Aaliyah: Princess of R&B. Some other public personalities had some less-than-kind words to say about the film, including radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
“The Aaliyah movie was dead serious,” the host said on his show. “I felt like I was being catfished and they were going to play the real movie around 11. But no. That was it. Someone needs to get stabbed in the head and choked out with a dog chain… Why would Wendy attach herself to this wack a– movie especially when the family and all of Aaliyah’s real team was against it?… You clearly didn’t even care about the legacy of Aaliyah and it shows because y’all didn’t even care enough to make a good film.”
But, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Wendy Williams only has good things to say about her film and is not backing down. Even if the film is bad, Williams is proud that Aaliyah’s story was told.
“As a black woman, I was proud to show that Aaliyah came from a two-parent family, which many of us don’t,” said Williams. “I think when you do a movie about people’s favorite, whoever that favorite is, people are always going to have some criticism. You really can’t win for losing, kind of sort of.”
What do you think about the Aaliyah movie? Did you see it? Do you side with Wendy or the firestorm of Twitter haters?
