This new film adaptation of The colour purple» is not just a new version. For Oprah Winfrey, Halle Bailey, Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks and everyone involved in the film, filming was a healing process.
Fantasia Barrino in a scene from the feature film. PHOTO BY WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
In the 1985 feature film directed by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey played the role of Sophia, the stepdaughter of Celie (then played by Whoopi Goldberg), a young woman who goes from a rapist father to an equally violent husband and whose fictional life she lives shapes the theme of The Color Purple. Today, alongside Steven Spielberg, Chris Sanders and Quincy Jones, she is the producer of this new play, The Color Purple, a clever mix of Alice Walker's novel and the musical that ran from 2005 to 2008 and then on Broadway in 2015.
“We use the phrase 'closing the loop' a lot, and for me that's absolutely the case. This morning I sent Steven a photo from last night's premiere and wrote, “I am in awe of what God has done.” I remember the moment in Baltimore when I read the book for the first time moment when nothing allowed me to believe that one day I could have a connection with Steven Spielberg and find myself, 40 years after the release of Your Movie Last Night on the Purple Carpet… I can only admire what God did,” Oprah Winfrey said Dec. 7 during a press conference the day after the feature film premiered in Los Angeles.
Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, who produce “The Color Purple,” are photographed at the film's world premiere in Los Angeles on December 6. MEGA/IF
Beyond Broadway
For director Blitz Bazawule, returning to Alice Walker's novel was crucial. “It's the Holy Grail, I went back to the book I hadn't read in a long time. This 14 year old girl takes us back to that room where she dreams and manages to escape her situation. We who are here all come from very humble backgrounds and we must also have dreamed of being here,” he emphasized.
Taraji P. Henson shines in “The Color Purple.” PHOTO BY WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
“I always look for the spiritual side of physical things because I believe we are primarily spiritual beings having a human experience,” Oprah Winfrey added. The spiritual aspect of the Blitz story brought this project to life. Knowing that he was a little boy in Ghana, drawing without a moment's suspicion that it would all lead him here, is proof that nothing we do is wasted.”
Fantasia Barrino reprized for the big screen the role of Celie that she played in the musical.
Phylicia Pearl Mpasi in a scene from “The Color Purple”. PHOTO BY WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
“When Blitz told me he gave Celie a fantasy, that's something we don't have on Broadway. Broadway is fast, once the show starts it doesn't stop and there is no time. Blitz gave us time on set and I had a completely new experience with Celie.”
The actress, like almost everyone in the team, had to overcome old traumas, and “The Color Purple” helped her with this.
Colman Domingo, who plays Mister, Celie's abusive husband, explained: “Filming wasn't easy at all. This work touches us all, we have had to deal with a lot of trauma and we have all put something of ourselves into it. We have all fallen into this darkness.”
PHOTO BY WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
“The dream and the journey are bigger than us. We did that in 2023, but who knows what will happen in 2053,” concluded Oprah Winfrey.
The Color Purple hits theaters across the province on December 25th.