In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the cast of the upcoming The Color Purple musical delved into the challenges of bringing the iconic story back to the big screen. Despite the critical and commercial success of Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation, the pressure to revive the beloved title as a movie musical was palpable.
Oprah Winfrey, returning as a producer alongside Spielberg, acknowledged the industry’s expectations, especially as the budget expanded: “To be completely honest about it, if you were doing this film for $30 or $40 million, the interest in the cast would be very different… ‘Can you get Beyoncé or can you get Rihanna?’ So we’re sitting in a room saying, ‘Listen, we love Beyoncé. We love Rihanna, but there are other actors who can do this job.’ It wasn’t even a negotiation because you’re not getting Beyoncé.”
While Winfrey is often associated with seemingly limitless resources, she emphasized that there were instances when the producing trio — Winfrey, Spielberg, and Quincy Jones — had to approach Warner Bros. to secure additional funding for the project.
Winfrey praised Warner Bros. co-chairs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca for understanding the film’s cultural significance: “You have to give us more money to do this because this is a cultural manifesto in a way for our community, and it deserves to have the support that’s needed to make it what it needs to be.” The project’s journey echoes the challenges commonly faced by Black productions, emphasizing the industry’s expectations and the need for perseverance in the face of these obstacles.
The challenges faced by the project echo those common in the industry, particularly for Black productions. However budgetary issues and casting wants the actresses were culturally invested in bringing this project to the big screen.
“The first movie missed culturally. We don’t wallow in the muck. We don’t stay stuck in our traumas… It’s light, it’s bright, it’s vibrant. It’s us,” emphasized Taraji P. Henson, underscoring the shift in tone for the new adaptation. She continued:
“We don’t have power. We are continuously oppressed, kept under a thumb. So what else can we do but laugh and celebrate life? We have to, otherwise we would die. So as soon as you see the first frame, you’re going to know that this movie is different. The coloring is different. It’s light, it’s bright, it’s vibrant. It’s us.”
The actresses weren’t the only ones invested in the cultural signifigance of this project in front of the screens. But also behind, it was important that whoever was directing the film would be someone of color. The lack of which was problematic for the original. Winfrey recalls that the NAACP first demanded to see the script, and when refused, publicly came out against the film over concerns of negative depictions of Black men, with significant upset over Spielberg being the one bringing the messaging to the world. “At the time, I was just mad at the NAACP, ‘How dare you all try to spoil this moment for all of us who’ve worked so hard, especially Alice Walker,’ ” says Winfrey. “Our response was, ‘This is one story. It’s not the story of every Black man.’ I was upset that they were doing it, but I would not let it affect any of my joy of the experience of being a part of it. There was nothing you could say to me about The Color Purple because [of what] all that experience meant. It was life-altering, -enhancing, -expanding.”
Fantasia Barrino, who plays Celie and previously portrayed the character in the Broadway adaptation, highlighted the cast’s determination to support their Black director, Blitz Bazawule: “It’s an all-Black cast, and it’s a movie that is really deep. So for Blitz, we all would go hard even when we were tired, when we were upset.”
“The Color Purple,” stars Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Fantasia Barrino, Colman Domingo, H.E.R., Jon Batiste, Louis Gossett Jr., David Alan Grier, Corey Hawkins, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Ciara, and Deon Cole.
As the release date of December 25th draws near, check out a new trailer for “The Color Purple.”