Producer Oprah Winfrey, cast, filmmakers on how 'The Color Purple' changed their lives

It is very rare in this day and age that one movie affects you and changes you. That is somehow the effect of Blitz Bazawule's movie "The Color Purple" on its producers, filmmakers and cast.

The musical adaptation from a screenplay by Marcus Gardley is based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker.

Oprah Winfrey, who starred in the 1985 first film adaptation as Sofia, led the group of filmmakers as one of the producers of the 2023 musical coming-of-age period drama.

Also produced by Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders, the star-studded movie features Taraji P. Henson (Shug Avery), Danielle Brooks (Sofia), Colman Domingo (Albert "Mister" Johnson), Corey Hawkins (Harpo Johnson), H.E.R. (Squeak/Mary Agnes), Halle Bailey (young Nettie Harris), Phylicia Pearl Mpasi (young Celie) and Fantasia Barrino (Celie) in her feature film debut. Both Barrino and Brooks reprise their roles from the stage musical.

The story of a Southern Black woman in the early 1900s, the movie is already critically acclaimed.

CineMovie wrote, "'The Color Purple' is hands down the best film of the year and the best musical ever. It's empowering, glorious and the musical numbers are amazing. Every performance is noteworthy, especially standouts like Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks. I feel like I've been to church."

The New York Times said, "Now there is a film version of the musical, directed — as no other adaptation has been — by a Black filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule, from a script by a Black screenwriter, Marcus Gardley. And the 2023 movie, due Dec. 25, manages to bring something new to its sweeping story, adding elaborate fantasy sequences that redefine the characters and the feel. It's now a period drama with a magical realist twist."

Below are excerpts from the post-screening Q & A that was held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills with producers Winfrey and Sanders, director Bazawule and the cast members that included Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Halle Berry, H.E.R., Corey Hawkins, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks, and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi.

To have now brought another iteration of "The Color Purple" to life, why was it so important for you all to get together?

Oprah Winfrey (OW): When I first heard that Scott was doing a Broadway musical of "The Color Purple," my friend Gayle called and said, you need to come and see this. And I was like, "How are you gonna do a musical?" (laughter) So, I'm going to let you answer that question because this was all your brainchild.

Scott Sanders (SS): Alice's story is so powerful. The characters live in our world, they live in our ether, and we know so many Celie's still today. And I felt like it was time for a new generation to experience it. I met Alice Walker in 1997, so I've been with this story for 25 years. And after doing it on Broadway, I thought I was done. Clearly, there was a calling that was not to be made. Then we met Blitz. We knew it was time. It was just time.

Blitz, I want to ask you about that vision. Where did that vision begin? What are you feeling right now? We just watched thousands of names of people who believed in your vision.

Blitz Bazawule (BB): Wow. I mean, first, it's deeply emotional to be here with so many brilliant people who put so much of their life force into this work, behind the camera, in front of the camera. So first let me start by acknowledging how blessed I am, we are, for that journey. The vision, and this is taken from what Scott talked about, begins with Alice Walker. That's who we're all indebted to for this blessing, that is "The Color Purple."

For me, it was very clear, and also, we have to shout out Marcus Gardley, our brilliant writer. Because those are the worlds that spurned all of this. When the opportunity first came up, I went back and read Alice's work and it was very clear to me that there was still an opportunity. Because, like most people, I also ask myself, why? Like, why do this again? It's been done, it's been done in many ways. But Alice's opening lines, Dear God, for me was like the first hook, the first thing that made me understand anybody who can write to God must have an imagination.

I knew that if we could just access Celie's imagination, we'd understand that most people who deal with trauma and abuse are often miscategorized as docile, waiting to be saved. That is not the case. They're working actively in their heads to try to free themselves. As long as we have access to their headspace, we can do that. Once we've figured out how to keep expanding Celie's headspace, anything she could imagine she could have, including how to love, who to love, how to love herself. I knew we would have a movie that would truly contribute to the brilliant canon that is "The Color Purple."

OW: You asked him how he is feeling. So, may I just do an Oprah thing here? (laughter) Can you just share with this audience what you were telling me just before we came back? So just before we were coming out here, I saw you standing in the corner and you were in prayer and you shared with me that years ago, right across the street...

BB: Right across the street is Paradigm Agency, who was the first to believe in signing me, my brilliant team is here, Gaby Mena, Natalia Williams, thank you. I made a small movie in Ghana called The Burial of Kujo with $40,000 of my own money. I screened it across the street for probably three people in there who were, I was hoping, they were Golden Globe voters, and I was hoping to woo them to my side. I'm sure some of them might even be here today. There were very, very few people in there, and when I first pulled up and I saw the line literally across the street, this was just 2019, I really, really, really got emotional because it really reminded me of this journey and this journey, of going from unseen to seen, which is Celie's ultimate story. The blessing that this moment is, not just for me, not just for me, but for all of us, and also from where I'm from, Ghana, where we're told we cannot participate, and we cannot compete. So, this here is everything and I'm so grateful to God and to you all.

Fantasia Barrino, that journey that Celie is going on, going from unseen to seen. You had played this role before on Broadway, you decided to come back this time around. How did you see Celie's journey differently?

Fantasia Barrino (FB): Scott knows when he first called me, I was like, nope. Sorry Scott. He was like, "I know you're married and you're happy. But you are Celie." And I was like, "Scott, I just can't do it." But I love you so much. Because he saw something in me back then that I didn't see in myself.

It wasn't until Blitz called me, and he was like, "Let me show you something." I was like, "Okay." He's like, "I want to show you." He gave Celie an imagination. That's when I was like, "Okay, I'm in." Real talk because he allowed me to see, or you guys to see what women go through and how we sometimes have to imagine ourselves in a different place before we get there.

So, that's why I was like, "Okay, you got me. Lord carry me." Then I got on the set. I have been around real live Oscars. Everybody you see on the stage. I was telling Corey in the back, "Corey, do I get on your nerves?" Because I fan out. I fan out with Corey, I fan out with Colman, I fan out with Danielle, I fan out with Taraji. I fan out with H.E.R. I'm up here with some amazing, real live, walking Oscars. I wouldn't have been able to do this without them. I had to step my game up.

But I remember when we all went to see the preview. Taraji was on the left of me, Danielle was in the back, and H.E.R. was on the right and we were all squeezing each other on certain parts, and then I was asking Taraji or Shug Avery. And she really is Shug Avery. And that is Sofia. Woo! I am not lying.

We were at the magazine shoot, and she came through and said, "I'm about to go out!" And I said, "There goes Sofia!" But we were squeezing each other, and we were all talking afterward, and I would say, I feel like we all had a part when we all stepped into the shoes, and we are all living or have been through certain parts of the characters that we play.

Colman and Taraji are the ones who I spent most of my time with. Mister and Shug. They always checked on me, always loved me. I was like, I can't play this part because I got a big beat. But they made sure when I felt the beat, that they caught me on the beat. Taraji would always make me laugh. Just like today, she was back there cutting' up.

It's true. But they kept me, and I was able to go back and dig into some things that I thought I had let go of. But this time playing Celie, from when I played her on Broadway, was different. I'm grown now. I realized that Celie was not so bad. I thought it was bad back then, but I just related to her. My life was in shambles, so it was a different whip than I carried. This time I realized she was pretty dope.

Taraji, some people may not have known just how incredibly powerful you are as a vocalist. Tell me about deciding to step into Shug Avery's shoes.

Taraji P. Henson (TPH): First of all, I thought Blitz had the wrong number. when he called. It was interesting because my management had already called and was like, "You're being tapped for Shug." I was like, "Get out of here." Then Blitz called and he was like, "You're my Shug Avery." I was like, "Me? Are you sure you have the right number?" He was like, "Yes." Then I connected the dots because Stephen Bray and Stephanie Allain. I'm gonna give you a little backstory.

So, Stephanie Allain, who I love dearly, produced Hustle & Flow. And she married Stephen Bray later. He did the music on Broadway. So back then, because now he's married to Stephanie, and Stephanie's like, "You know Taraji can sing." He tapped me for Shug, and I was like, no sir. I was trained in theater, I studied musical theater, you're talking eight shows a week, I'm not blowing my vocal cords out.

But the funny thing about life is that when something is destined for you, you can't run from it. Because I tried, and Shug still found me. I guess this is literally a role where I can say I was destined to play this role.

Danielle Brooks, tell me about the journey, because you've also gone on a journey with this character. Playing Sofia when you were younger and now stepping back into the role now. How did you see her differently?

Danielle Brooks (DB): First of all, oh, I'm just grateful. I have to take a breath to take in this moment. I dreamed of this moment. 118 days, y'all.

We were unsure if we would be here, and we're here. The journey has been a wild one for me. My journey starts in 2005 and getting to see this on Broadway. My dad took me, I was from South Carolina, 15 years old, he took me to see "The Color Purple" and it changed my world! Because I saw people who looked like me.

It just gave me a path to walk through and find. I will never forget in 2015, I was doing Orange is the New Black, and while I was doing that, I was in my house in Brooklyn, and the announcement that they were doing the revival came out. I remember sitting there like, oh, I can't wait to see who they use as Sofia.

I was like, there's no way that I'm going to get to do both. And I did. It changed my life. I just never forget singing Hell No every night. Using it as my shield, my weapon, because I was so afraid. I had finally stepped into this thing that I wanted so badly, and I had gotten imposter syndrome feeling like am I enough? I got to sing, Hell No, and fight that thing every day.

You go through the journey, and you call this guy and say, "Hey, you want to hire me?" Trying to be cool about it. Then I heard this one over here, booked Harpo before I booked Sofia. I played Sofia for a year. So, I just was like, Lord, please put the pieces together.

You're praying for this thing. Please put the pieces together. So, when Ms. O called me and said that I got the part two days after my birthday. The best gift I could have ever gotten. Then, to get to today, my daughter's birthday. She's four. To get to take her to her first movie, to see that one down there in The Little Mermaid. And in the trailer, to get to see her mom as Sofia. It's special, and it's so full circle.

I'm just grateful for my journey. It hasn't been an easy one. None of our journeys have been easy up here. None. But God makes no mistakes. And what is for you will never miss you. So, I'm so grateful to God who has been listening.

Oprah, as you see this young woman step into this role, but even more, as she just expressed, into herself. What does it mean to share that lineage together?

OW: Well, "The Color Purple" changed my life. In 1985, I never wanted anything more in my life than to be in "The Color Purple," to the point where I thought, I didn't know anything about the movies, and at the end credit, there's something called the best boy. I was gonna convince Quincy Jones that I could be the best girl. And God saw fit.

I mean, when Blitz was telling me his story earlier. Just as he finished the story, the movie was ending, and the chorus was, Look What God Has Done. So, it was almost like signing off on what you had just said. And for every one of us up here, it is a story of look at what God has done. And from the beginning, from the very first time I read "The Color Purple," it was a blessing in my life because until that time, I didn't know that there was language for what happened to me. And the first line of the book is, Dear God, I am 14 years old. Please help me know what's happening to me.

I had been raped and had a child at 14 who later died. I did not have any language to explain what that was. That book was the first time that there was a story about me. So, to come full circle and then to be discovered by Quincy Jones and be in the movie. I literally prayed on my knees every night for the opportunity to be in that movie. Never wanted anything more. I was so excited to be in the movie. And then when it happened, it changed my life.

It changed everything for me to come so full circle that I am producing with Scott Sanders and producing with Steven Spielberg. I remember at the time, I got $35,000 to do "The Color Purple." And my lawyer said, I know I can get you $50k, and I go, "Please don't! Please! I would do it for nothing." So, it's a full, full circle moment for me and that character became iconic for me. So, I wanted to be there the day in particular that Danielle did that famous you told Harpo to beat me scene.

I wanted to be the one to call Danielle because it felt like passing the baton of glory and goodness. Because this is what we people all reap from the experience of this movie. It's glory and goodness. Because it is divinely touched. It's bigger than all of us. It's what Scott was saying earlier. It's what Alice Walker seeded in the novel. It goes beyond us.

Now this story comes into the world and generations will experience this in ways. And it's like Fantasia has said on other occasions, you can't come to this movie and not be healed. There's something really powerful going on with the spirit of it and the energy of it. And it's the spirit, the energy, and the love, and literally the vibrational frequency that we all brought to it. So, to see everyone here on stage in their highest vibration, speaking of this thing that we love that is really greater than ourselves, I have no words for that. Look at what God has done.

Danielle, to have that moment, to be performing that scene, knowing that Oprah is there on the other side of the camera.

(DB): I had to pray. You just want to make her proud, first of all. Like, that's the way you can honor her, is by doing the work and getting yourself out of the way. All of the things that you're feeling and experiencing, removing that, and being Sofia. That's the best gift I could give you all, that's the best gift I can give myself and to the legendary O!

So, it was a day but what I appreciate about this woman is that she held my hand the whole day and she let me fly. She said, "You know it's yours. Do what you may. You got this." She reminded me of that. And she was just one phone call away. There were times I would call her and I'm "Miss O." Because, this is heavy material, and there are times when you have to shoot things over and over. She reminded me to call on the ancestors that they're there, and that they will never leave you, even if you feel depleted. So, I'm very grateful for that and it taught me the lesson that it's my turn. Do the same.

As we sit here and celebrate this sisterhood and truly all of the generations and all of the careers that everyone is in, I pitch down to you, Phylicia. How does it feel to share this beautiful role, share in this lineage, you're sharing it with Fantasia, you're sharing it with so many people who see themselves in Celie. What did it mean to you to be a part of this?

Phylicia Pearl Mpasi (PPM): It feels honestly otherworldly. I have a personal connection as a fan and as a viewer of everyone's talent up here since I was a young girl. And this is something that I asked for when I saw that it was happening. I saw Corey was cast first, and I've always wanted to work with Corey. I was like, it's gonna happen. And I was like, I wanna do this film. And just thinking about it like generations, ancestors, my grandmother passed away in May of 2021.

In our family, she was like this Celie. She was someone who went through a lot of traumas in her life and when we went to go bury her, we're from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, my first time going home was to bury her and the day we put her in the ground I saw the notice for this audition online. Just like, I was like, "Wow grandma! Thank you! It worked so fast!"

It didn't take her but two seconds. It was work she couldn't do on this earth, she had to transition. Just looking at everyone here, it's just a reminder that dreams come true every single day. Just hearing them talk about how this is their own individual dream is so moving to me and so inspiring to me. I hope it will inspire everyone here.

That year was the year of the pandemic and I've made a playlist to really put myself in a vision of a life that I wanted. On that playlist was the song, I Believe, which Fantasia recorded when she won American Idol. I say it to you all the time, but you were the blueprint for me growing up. Just watching you, when you were so young, and what you've gone through, and where you are today. I don't take any of this lightly, and I'm just so, so grateful to be here.

That is the power of this movie. That is what this movie is celebrating. It is celebrating our bonds with sisters we don't even know we have. With brothers we don't even know we have. Halle, I want to go to you next because Celie and Nettie's relationship is the heart of this story. Tell me a little bit about you and Phylicia and how you two bonded.

Halle Bailey (HB): This was such a blessing to be able to be a part of such a beautiful project with so many people who have inspired me for so very long, much like you just said. I was really drawn to be a part of it, and I was really excited to take on this role I felt like I had a lot of history and sisterhood with my personal relationship with my sister, Chlöe, who is my angel, my guardian, my everything.

I'm the baby sister, I have two older sisters and a baby brother, but I'm the baby of the girls. So, I felt like I could really resonate with young Nettie's story. Also, I felt like she was teaching me strength about myself that I didn't know I had within me. It was really exciting to get to do it with Phylicia. It was so amazing just to play on that beautiful, fun relationship of sisterhood.

It's truly a blessing when you can have a guide here with you on earth to be like what you do it this way you're okay like hold my hand I got you and that's what my sister Chlöe is for me, so I felt like I was able to imitate her in a way when playing with Phylicia and being the one to guide her out of the darkness that would try to consume us, but we wouldn't let it. So, I'm just so grateful to be here as well. This is like a dream to even be sitting up here.

Gabriella, this movie is about sisterhood and the evolution that Squeak has, it's beautiful to see her step into herself and become Mary Agnes. How would you relate to her?

H.E.R.: Oh my gosh, this is so crazy, this experience. I couldn't even believe that I got the opportunity to be Squeak. I didn't realize it until I was on set, how much I was actually Squeak. Because in the beginning, I was so intimidated. I'm looking at everyone like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. I'm with Oprah, Fantasia and Danielle and we're with each other every day and I'm the new kid in school. Because I was in and out of touring and coming on set, I was so excited. But as I was working on being Squeak and being on set, learning what that means, what that process is like, I was working my way up to like who the character of Squeak is.

In the beginning, I'm doing some takes and I'm like, "Was that good?" Blitz is like, "You have great instincts." Scott is like, "You're doing amazing." I'm like, oh, wow. So naturally in the film, the first scene we shot is the first time you see me. And I'm like, I can sing too. So, I was actually hesitant in real life to say something like that.

Even just learning the accent and everything. So, you saw the natural progression, but also her having a dream and having a vision of who she wanted to become. I just remember being 10-year-old Gabby playing, singing, and wanting to be a singer one day, wanting to be an artist, and it really, empowered me in a different way, because I've just gone through so many transitions on my journey, and it reminded me why I do this, why I love storytelling, whether it's acting or singing.

It unlocked something in me, and it reminded me why I'm here. It really reminded me like, oh wow, yeah, I started off here and now look what God has done. Like it's crazy, it always comes back to that. Because I'm like, I can't believe I'm in the movie, this is my debut, this is insane. It's just funny because I get things about music, oh we're using a song for this film, and I'm like, I love that stuff, but I was waiting for like an email about a role, and finally, like, it was like, oh, Squeak, and I was like, yes!

Not just a song, like an actual role, so I was just so honored, and as I said, you just see that natural progression in the movie, and I gained my confidence in real life, editing the movie by the end of the movie.

There's something very special about the way this film addresses relationships, generational trauma, and the things that are passed down. Between Mister and Harpo, this film addresses it in a very distinct way. So, Colman, I would like to begin with you. In taking on this role as Mister. We know you have Broadway chops; we know you have the Tony nomination; we know you have all of these things. But to go there and to be all layers of him, from his brokenness to his brutality to also then sitting across from Louis Gossett Jr. And we learned a bit more about how this came to be. What was it about Mister that made you say you wanted to do this?

Colman Domingo (CD): The first thing is, I never thought I would be in any production of "The Color Purple" in any way. I sing, but I don't sing like that. I don't. I know my skills. But I remember I saw Danielle's production and she always recalls I went for my birthday, and they were singing, I don't think it's for you, and I literally forgot that I was in a full theater with other people. I just said, not at all! loud, like that.

I was so moved and shaken by what I saw and experienced. I remember performing on that stage and hugging and kissing everybody, people I didn't know, and I said, thank you, thank you, thank you. I didn't know why this lived so deeply in me, this expression.

So, when I was invited to be a part of this, Blitz and I had our first conversation and we're talking about Black men and how they're viewed, and how we can do something to remedy that. That was important for me. Any representation of a Black male in the world, I feel like I want to give our full humanity. I want to show even characters that are seemingly written to just be violent and cruel. But I'm like, I want to know, how did they get that way?

That was what we were curious about. We started talking about that, quoting this, and talking about it. How did he get this way? You're not born this way. What trauma are you suffering from? What generational trauma are you lacking? What are you missing? What do you need? Why must you put your foot on someone else's throat to make you feel bigger? I am a 1000% feminist. I wanted to make sure that I was in service to these women in this film and all that they must hold. I know I have to carry a lot as well.

By making sure that I understood how Mister operates in the world, what he needs and where his heart is broken by the system that he's under, which is America. It's easy to write off a character like Mister. It's easy to write off anyone who's an abuser. But you have to look at the character of Celie. She has forgiveness that comes so beautifully.

For me, I have to be in service to that part of the story as well, where she can forgive because she can see how he's hurt and broken. She can raise him up. That's beautiful. That's a large message of what the possibility that's available in "The Color Purple" and why it's lasted so long, why people keep running back to the book and to the film and any incarnation of this, because it really is about us and how do we deal with generational trauma and then how do we have forgiveness for one another.

I will go even further to how it goes about how do we forgive each other just being in America? Really how do we forgive each other? Black and white, gay and straight, oppressed, oppressors. To find that space of love, there's love in the middle of "The Color Purple."

I know I want to define that; I want to define that with my son. We had this beautiful rehearsal, and I'm gonna pass this to Corey, we had this beautiful rehearsal with Blitz, and we were going through the scene with Corey and I, and we were just like, there's something that we want to explore, and I was like, it's just not right that he just walks out and like, get away from me or whatever. I think there's an unconscious moment. There's something he says that Marcus has written, he says something like, Alexander, I didn't know that you, it's sort of you made me proud, I see you did really good. And then I laid it on Corey's chest. I will never forget that rehearsal.

There was that possibility of tenderness if they were just allowed, and that's important for me to see Black men being tender in any way, shape, or form. I laid on his chest, and he held me, and I heard his voice say, "You alright, Pop?" And that just moved me so much. We discovered it at that moment, and we knew that was it. We were like, oh, that unlocked something for us as men in this story, that there's a possibility of tenderness if we just allow and lean into it and get rid of this toxic masculinity and release some of this trauma that we're carrying.

There's a possibility, and that helps serve the men in this story in a great way. So, we're not just villains. You can really examine us differently. You can examine the brother you see on the street a little differently. Why is he holding himself in such a way? It's protective energy. But if you talk to him, you listen to him, you'll find that there's intelligence and tenderness and want and desire like everyone else.

Corey Hawkins, take us home. That's what happens when you get cast first.

Corey Hawkins (CH): Oh, God is so good. Because this does feel like church to me. I was raised in a home by strong Black women. I appreciate you mentioning being cast first. But my first thought was to get out of the way and make space for these women. I remember when Scott called me about this role, about playing Harpo. I was confused, and I remembered hanging up the phone, very graciously, I was over the moon, and my first thought, I picked the phone back up immediately and called him back and I was just like, "Danielle Brooks, please. I want to be her Harpo."

It's crazy how full circle all of this is. We were in school together, rolling around, broke college students on the floor of Juilliard. It's hard enough to get into there. And to look around in those rooms and not see people who look like us. these years later to be here right now together is more than enough of a gift for me.

Harpo has always been an empath. He's a preserver, he's taught, he's a sponge and he holds that trauma, he holds that grief. He, outside of Celie's sister, is the one person who truly watches the trauma and the abuse that Celie goes through all the way. But Harpo makes a decision to change. He makes a decision to break through his chamber. I wanted to lean into our book this year because there is something about all of these characters that are flawed.

We all have flaws in us. If you say you don't, you're lying. But there's the line that Alice Walker wrote, God is inside of you, everything else, everyone else. There's something about that allowed me to say, how can you look at somebody else and see somebody who you might hate? And not see God?

For me, it just blew my mind open. I was like, she might be onto something. But it's just, for me, carrying that, knowing that this familial story is familiar. That it raises and touches so many people across generations. It certainly has for me. I'm grateful for this journey. I'm grateful to tell Harpo's story and to watch how it touches each person up here. It's a gift that I hope people continue to share, this story, these words that Alice Walker wrote lives today in me, in you, in every one of us. I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that this is the first time that we all get to be together since filming this. I'm just eternally thankful.

FB: So, I want to say one thing. We all got this. Everybody, this is why I said it's going to bring healing. If you haven't realized the healing amongst us, that's going to come through the screens. I haven't spoken to my family in over 20 years. They sent me a text and said, they all rented out a movie theater and they're going to see the movie. So, the healing and the love that "The Color Purple" is gonna bring, as you can see, that has lived through us, will live through those screens and people, and this time with everything that's going on we need that healing.

—MGP, GMA Integrated News