This is the gift that will keep on giving! We are here to see this star-studded ensemble! Oprah Winfrey, who starred in the original movie and is producing the 2023 adaptation, said “The Color Purple” is about “sisterhood.”
There is so much to say about this magnificent cast. “I think women in particular will be healed from this movie and its portrayal of sisterhood,” Oprah Winfrey, who starred in Steven Spielberg’s original movie and is an producer of the forthcoming movie slated for December, told Essence in an interview published Oct. 17.
Along with Winfrey, Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders are producers. Blitz Bazawule directs.
Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson and H.E.R. star as leading ladies of Celie, Sofia, Shug and Squeak, respectively.
Halle Bailey and Ciara play younger and older versions of Nettie, Celie’s sister. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is the sisters’ mother, called only Mama in the story.
Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins and Louis Gossett Jr. lead as Mister, Harpo and Old Mister.
Other cast members include David Alan Grier as Rev. Avery, Stephen Hill as Buster, Deon Cole as Alfonso, Jon Batiste as Grady and Tamela Mann as the church’s first lady.
The film is considered a revived and reformatted version of the Broadway musical, which debuted in 2005 and then reopened in 2015. The revival starred Jennifer Hudson, Danielle Brooks and Cynthia Erivo. Henson was asked to join that production, but declined.
“I was scared I was going to blow out my vocal chords,” she told Winfrey in the Essence feature.
“I was ready this time,” she said. “You go in the studio, you sing the song, and then they play it on the set. So you don’t have to really sing full-out. It’s the difference between singing that one time in the studio (and) singing eight nights in a row on Broadway.”
“The Color Purple” is about sisterhood — and about the tribulations that make people need that bond. Both Celie and Sofia are in abusive relationships.
Winfrey, speaking to the movie’s cast for Essence, recalled how her late friend Tina Turner turned down the role of Shug Avery because she “already lived it with Ike.” Tina Turner was open about the abuse in her marriage with Ike Turner; he confirmed he was abusive in a 1990 interview with People.
Winfrey asked Barrino if she had to “relive a lot of trauma” to play Celie.
Barrino answered that she did — “but I had an amazing cast to support me.”
Henson jumped in, saying, “I know when you’re doing something so heavy like this, it can be triggering. You have to learn to live in between takes.”
H.E.R. added that it comes with the territory of doing good work. “It’s the sacrifice you make sometimes for the art, right? They say, ‘What’s bad for the heart is good for the art.’ As storytellers, we take those chances, and we tell our stories in different ways, and it’s for a greater good. You never know how many people you impact.”
As an original cast member and executive producer on the revival, Winfrey has not been short on words about either project. Most recently, though, she heralded the new iteration as championing sisterhood.
“This is a full-circle moment,” Winfrey told Essence. “One of the things I’m most excited about is what ‘The Color Purple’will do for the sisterhood.”
Winfrey originated the role that Brooks is playing, Sofia. She personally surprised Brooks with the casting news. “I’m so happy to pass whatever baton from 35, almost 40 years ago to you,” Winfrey said. ”
The 2nd Trailer to The Color Purple.
Source: Today News
