Oprah Winfrey told how the book The colour purple helped her deal with the trauma of the rape she suffered at age 14 during the launch of a new film adaptation of the hit book in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The new adaptation, a musical film, is the second cinematic version of Alice Walker’s book, following the 1985 Steven Spielberg film in which the American television superstar made her film debut.
The color purple evokes the trials, suffering, and especially sexual assault that many black women faced in the American South in the early 20th century.
“The color purple was a blessing in my life when I first read it, because until then I didn’t know there were words for what happened to me,” Oprah Winfrey said during a screening in Los Angeles on Thursday .
“I was raped when I was 14 and had a child who then died and I didn’t have the words to explain it,” explained the woman who is now often considered one of the most powerful women in the world.
“The Color Purple” tells the story of Celie, a young black girl from rural Georgia in the southern United States who is raped by her father and forced to abandon two children.
Celie is then forced to marry an abusive husband, but finds strength in dealing with other women facing their own traumas.
Oprah Winfrey recounted how when she learned in the 1980s that Steven Spielberg would be directing the film adaptation, she “literally got on her knees and prayed every night to be in the movie.”
Her role as Sofia earned her an Oscar nomination. The film “changed my life,” she told the audience in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Produced by Blitz Bazawule in the form of a musical, the new adaptation takes on a lighter, often cheerful and optimistic tone.
Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey are both among the producers of the Warner Bros. film, which is scheduled to hit theaters on Christmas Day in the U.S. and January 24 in France.