On this morning’s Crew Call, we talk with The Color Purple producers Oprah Winfrey and Scott Sanders on blazing a path for their Broadway musical to the big screen.
27.12.2023 - 00:33 / justjared.com
The movie musical The Color Purple is now in theaters and it features an exciting cameo from a beloved star.
We won’t spoil it for people who want to be surprised when they watch the movie for the first time, so stop reading now if you don’t want to see the spoilers.
The movie is based on three properties – Alice Walker‘s beloved novel, Steven Spielberg‘s 1985 film, and the acclaimed Broadway musical.
Keep reading to find out more…
So, who made that surprise cameo in the new movie?
It was Whoopi Goldberg, who originated the role of Celie in the classic movie almost 40 years ago!
Whoopi plays the role of the midwife early on in the movie and delivers Celie’s baby.
“Symbolically, that felt like the perfect part, because she’s the one to not only encourage her during the birth, but it’s like she herself gave birth to the role and now we see her passing it down,” screenwriter Marcus Gardley told the Los Angeles Times about the scene with Whoopi and young Celie actress, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi.
He added, “It’s one of the most beautiful scenes because you see [Goldberg] looking upon [Mpasi] with pride and telling her, ‘You can do it.’”
Director Blitz Bazawule added, “We had to stop and laugh because of everything [Goldberg] did, and you forget that she comes from stand-up [comedy]. But more than anything, I just remember how caring and loving she was to Phylicia. It was symbolic not only because of what Whoopi represents in the canon of The Color Purple, but what Whoopi represents, period — the juggernaut that she is, and the doors she kicked open.”
Read all about the success of the movie on its opening day!
On this morning’s Crew Call, we talk with The Color Purple producers Oprah Winfrey and Scott Sanders on blazing a path for their Broadway musical to the big screen.
The sisterhood between Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks began on Broadway. That is, the sisterhood of the order of The Color Purple. Both women starred on stage in the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer-prize winning novel. Barrino spent 10 months in 2007 playing Celie, the poor country girl who survives an abusive step-father and husband and realizes her worth.
Director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 version of Alice Walker’s classic, “The Color Purple,” has always been heavily debated. Many knock it for being too tidy and toning down the lesbian love story at its heart. Others, though, consider it a classic and a film that has withstood the test of time a lot better than the movie it lost the Best Picture Oscar to, “Out of Africa.”
The cast of Masters of the Air showed up in force for the Apple TV+ series’ world premiere on Wednesday (January 10) in Los Angeles.
“Morning Show” costars Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup and smiled for the cameras alongside Jennifer Lawrence. Aniston even checked in with Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw. She sported a sleek black Dolce & Gabbana gown for the occasion and debuted a shorter hairstyle reminiscent of “The Rachel.” “The Morning Show” was up for Best Television Series – Drama at the Globes, which ultimately went to “Succession.” Aniston already has one Golden Globe to her name.
Oprah Winfrey has already denied that she had a feud with Taraji P. Henson while working on The Color Purple and now we’re learning more about what happened on set.
during a live Q&A session on Friday with the film’s cast. According to the actress, they also were not given any food. “You corrected it for us,” Brooks told Winfrey, 69, who said she heard about the situation from Henson, 53.
Hello and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex, an associate editor and film writer at Deadline.
Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson pose together on the red carpet at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards.
Nick Clement The way an actor approaches and prepares for a role can be different with each project, and in some instances, the material presents specific obstacles that make the experience even more personally fulfilling or transcendent. This is true for actors of any age but is especially notable for a trio of younger talent in this awards season. One of the year’s best performances arrived in last summer’s coming-of-age dramedy, “Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret,” from the now-15-year-old Abby Ryder Fortson.
The Color Purple” in 2007 because of trauma from a sexual assault that resurfaced when she took on the role.“That was around the time that my life was so crazy, so it was almost like carrying my cross and Celie’s cross. I didn’t know how to come out of the character,” Barrino, 39, told People.Nevertheless, Barrino reprised her role as Celie — who was also a victim of sexual assault — in “The Color Purple” film, which was released last week.The songstress revealed that she almost didn’t accept the part when director Blitz Bazawule asked her to star in the film.
Fantasia Barrino is sharing how she really felt about playing the lead role of Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway.
The movie The Color Purple is currently in theaters and winning over audiences around the country!
Angelique Jackson SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “The Color Purple,” now playing in theaters. As “The Color Purple” director Blitz Bazawule and his star-studded cast made their press rounds ahead of the musical movie’s Christmas Day release, they paid a special trip to visit “The View” and Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in the 1985 movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s classic novel. It’d been nearly 40 years since Goldberg played Celie, an abused and uneducated Southern Black woman whose journey to liberation is at the center of Walker’s tale. Bazawule and stars Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks and Taraji P.
Oprah Winfrey was part of the original 1985 film cast of The Color Purple, but decided not to make a cameo in the 2023 version in theaters now. If you don’t know, Oprah portrayed the role of Sofia in 1985 and was Oscar nominated for her role. She acted as a producer this go around.
Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Director Blitz Bazawule had a clear vision of what he wanted Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) to represent in “The Color Purple.” She was a bold, sexy, beautiful and extraordinary woman, but she was also loving and nurturing to Celie (Fantasia Barrino) and Sophia (Danielle Brooks). “Those were her sisters and there was a bond there,” Tym Wallace, the film’s makeup and hair department artist explains.
Angelique Jackson Turning 30 is always a memorable moment, but “The Color Purple” actor Phylicia Pearl Mpasi rang in her third decade with a birthday serenade from Oprah Winfrey. Coincidentally, Mpasi’s birthday (November 16) fell on another special occasion: the first screening of the musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” The atmosphere was charged with anticipation since this was the debut of the film before critics and press, but the mood backstage was particularly jovial since it was the first time the cast — Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Choreographer Fatima Robinson fused hip-hop, dance, African history, tap, jazz and even Jamaican moves as she crafted the musical numbers in “The Color Purple,” but there was one person in particular whose energy she wanted to capture: Beyoncé. Specifically, the energy of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” Director Blitz Bazawule blends Alice Walker’s text and the Broadway musical to reimagine the classic as a vibrant movie musical. “American Idol’s” Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, a woman who slowly finds her voice with Shug Avery’s (Taraji P.
A column chronicling events and conversations on the awards circuit.