How Lifetime Can Learn From All the Aaliyah Movie Hate

We know it’s a Lifetime movie, but it’s not okay to be cool with putting out a messy story of a black R&B singer who had a cultural impact, whether people think she’s overrated or not. As for the ratings, there’s a weird logic behind hate-watching a show that I think makes sense. I’d argue that even without the lure of Twitter-bashing, if this was 10 years ago, people would tune in either way.

2) For the Casting/Cast

Captain Obvious point No. 2: This movie would’ve benefited immensely from better casting. In 2009’s Notorious—another biopic that similar to TLC’s had real-life consulting—rapper Gravy’s portrayal as Biggie and Naturi Naughton as Lil Kim surprised us all in a good way. In this case, it’s hard to make up for a lead actress who’s just a poor fit overall.

Alexandra Shipp, aka Aaliyah lite lite lite, lacked the ease and quiet confidence needed to pull off the role of Aaliyah. The casting director, Tracy “Twinkie” Bird, maybe knew this, but I’m guessing that after Zendaya Coleman dropped out, time constraints forced the producers into Plan C. Shipp said she only had 10 days to prepare whereas the rest of the cast had months. That’s my main issue with rushed productions. Take your time finding the right actors.

Meanwhile, in his portrayal of R. Kelly, Clé Bennett looked like five different people throughout the movie, including Joe and Aaron Hall. Timbaland was somehow thin and fine, and Damon Dash was like 7-feet tall. Casting a biopic is usually a crapshoot because you can’t expect exact replicas. But did they use Flex’s Michael Jackson role as a vision board?

Bird previously casted Notorious and Fruitvale Station, so I won’t hold this against her. She retweeted this:

3) For the Writers

This was really the origin of the mess. A good movie starts with a solid script and this just wasn’t. Executive producers Howard Braunstein and Debra Martin Chase defended the R. Kelly part of the storyline, telling The Washington Post: “The evidence is there that they were married. We tried to keep it very tasteful and respectful in our portrayal.”

It came across like a pedophile rom-com. The R. Kelly portion deserved a lighter touch. They may have felt pressured to not gloss over that part of Aaliyah’s life, but making it such a huge chunk of the plot was a misstep. Subtlety.

4) For the Soundtrack

The producers couldn’t legally use most of Aaliyah’s music or recreate performances, so all we heard were Shipp’s renditions of “At Your Best,” “Journey to the Past” and “The One I Gave My Heart To,” plus a couple cover songs. As much as Aaliyah’s real vocals would’ve helped, there may have been a way around that. The Five Heartbeats, which was “loosely based” on the careers of acts like the Temptations and the Four Tops, made it work without the real Motown music. Instead, they hired the R&B group After 7 to sing.

More recently, Beyond the Lights had producer-songwriter The-Dream create original songs for their score. We all know Aaliyah wasn’t hitting high notes like crazy, but Shipp could barely carry a tune. Vocals from a new, more capable artist would’ve helped in this case. And if there’s no Aaliyah music, then what about choreography scenes, a la my secret obsessions Stomp the Yard and Step Up? Aaliyah’s dancing was integral to her popularity, so seeing her practice to other ’90s R&B songs could’ve worked and made up for some things.

Of course, I can tell you what could’ve been done, but I wasn’t there. Unfortunately, it all comes down to a lack of involvement from those close with Aaliyah. In the case of the TLC movie, having T-Boz and Chilli involved in the process helped its authenticity and likely made the writing process easier. It boils down to being respectful of a person’s life and story, especially when you’re telling it to a mass audience. At the least, start by pronouncing the woman’s name correctly.

Image via Lifetime