“This ain’t your mama’s Color Purple,” says Oprah Winfrey. Those are the exact words she uses to describe the upcoming film based on the Tony-winning Broadway musical, which was based on the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie that gave the media icon her first big acting break. It all originates from Alice Walker’s classic 1982 novel about Black women from the rural South during the early part of the last century, trying to survive and thrive under unspeakable, ever-present cruelties.
Joy, love, and hope are also interwoven throughout—the lifelines these women cling to amidst the gale-force brutality. Winfrey strikes those same jubilant tones as she unveils for Vanity Fair the full cast of actors who will bring The Color Purple musical to the big screen for its latest incarnation.
When Fantasia Taylor, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Corey Hawkins, and H.E.R. start shooting in Georgia next month, Winfrey predicts that The Color Purple will change their lives, as it once did hers.
“It has been a vehicle for magic and purpose in my life,” Winfrey says. “I don’t know anybody who’s ever been associated with it whose life didn’t get enhanced. Everything comes from the original words of Alice Walker, which were grounded in love, really. Love of this community. Love of these people. Love of those characters. And that just gets passed on and passed on and passed on. I can’t wait to see this next evolvement, which is not attached to having done it the way we’ve always done it.”
Winfrey is producing the new film with Scott Sanders, who produced the original Broadway musical in 2005 and has shepherded the show around the world ever since, including winning the Best Revival Tony in 2015. Joining them as producers on the new movie are Spielberg and Quincy Jones, who was the composer and a producer on the Oscar-nominated ’85 film.
Sanders says the new movie’s director, Blitz Bazawule (Beyoncé’s Black Is King, The Burial of Kojo), and screenwriter Marcus Gardley (The Chi) will steer the hardscrabble story of endurance into dreamlike territory, which will provide an escape for the central character, Celie (played in the Spielberg film by Whoopi Goldberg). Her longings and ambitions are often beaten down and suppressed in the real world she inhabits.
“Incorporating magical realism in this version of the story gives the audience a chance to go inside of Celie’s imagination,” Sanders says. “In the early stages of Celie’s story, she is meek and small and in many ways passive. So we don’t really understand what’s going on inside that head of hers. We know there’s a lot going on, but we don’t know necessarily what it is.” Now audiences will see her hidden passions, conveyed via songs written by Brenda Russell, Stephen Bray, and the late Allee Willis.
Here’s how the filmmakers put together the cast that will be bring it all together…
Vanity Fair: I know you’ve both lived with this story a long time. Can you walk me through the process of how you found the right people for each of these iconic characters?
Oprah Winfrey: As you know, there’s a history and legacy for this piece already. There’s 40 years of iconic creation here. Scott, you can talk about how many different Celies you went through on Broadway. And it’s been performed around the world—London and South Africa, and in all the states in the United States. There’ve been various variations of Celies and Sofias and Misters. And we all came to the table with our different ideas. I think we’ve landed on the best people in this particular moment.
Did Alice Walker consult on the casting process?
Scott Sanders: Oh yeah. Oprah and I, and Blitz, were really front and center in terms of looking at auditions and thinking about the whole mosaic, understanding that these characters need to do a whole lot. They obviously have to act, but they also have to sing and dance—and age. I’ve kept Alice abreast throughout the entire thing. She’s been really pleased with each one of the choices we’ve made.
Fantasia Taylor as Celie
Let’s start with the central role of Celie. You’ve chosen Fantasia Taylor, who played the role on Broadway in 2007, and recorded one of the musical’s most beloved songs for her 2010 album.
Winfrey: There is a rawness and a vulnerability to Fantasia. We all know she can sing, and she has to take on the song “I’m Here,” which is the anthem for women’s empowerment. I think there’s no better time than this moment for it. It is an international battle cry for triumphing over adversity and empowering oneself and finding home within one’s self and one’s family. I think we’re gonna see a side of Fantasia that no one ever imagined.
I was going to say, the part of Celie requires such range. Even though she’s strong the whole time, what I remember about Whoopi’s performance was how small she seemed too. She could make herself almost shrink because she was so beaten down. I haven’t seen Fantasia play the role onstage, but it sounds like she has it in her.
Winfrey: We all believe that she does. That’s going to be one of the great challenges of her life, but also one of the great triumphs of her life.
Colman Domingo as Mister
You have one of my favorite actors, Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead, Zola, Euphoria), playing the role of Mister, originated by Danny Glover in Spielberg’s film. Mister is the monster of the story as Celie’s husband. He abuses her. He hides her sister’s letters. He’s tyrannical and terrifying. What led you to Colman for the part?
Winfrey: I love Colman for many reasons, but also because of his prolific ability to embody any character. There’s a presence that he carries that reminded me so much of young Mister. You know, he could be Danny’s son. Just the other day I was going through the costumes for him. The hats, the vests, all that stuff. And I’m just really excited about him.
(Domingo also spoke with Vanity Fair for this story to discuss his casting as Mister: “He’s a broken character. He has dreams and aspirations, like everyone else, that have been unfulfilled. What does he do? He oppresses others,” Domingo said. “What The Color Purple does best—in its book form, and its film, and hopefully in this hybrid that we give the world—is show that this collective Black trauma isn’t for naught. It has propelled all of us. I think that’s what [this story] can show at its best. We hope it leaves an indelible imprint about our humanity, what America is steeped in, and how there is some hope and some promise.”)
Halle Bailey as Nettie
Halle Bailey, who is about to star as Ariel in Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid, will play Nettie, Celie’s sister, who runs away when Mister attacks her. She’s such a critical character because you need somebody in that role who can be felt even when she’s not onscreen.
Winfrey: That’s such an astute observation. She’s somebody whose presence you can feel in her absence—the memory of her, the feeling of her, the strength of her comes through, even when you’re only hearing her voice from her letters.
Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery
That brings us to the character of Shug Avery, the blues singer whose voice and beauty make everyone swoon—including Celie. You’ve chosen Taraji P. Henson for the part.
Winfrey: I will tell you this, that one of the things that stuck out for me in the Broadway play was the song “Shug Avery Comin’ to Town,” when all the women say: Lock up all your husbands! [Laughs] So as we’re going through casting, I would say, “Eh, not locking up my husband for her...Eh, not locking up my husband for her…” The woman has got to embody not just sexiness, but a sexual wisdom.
This is the person who becomes Celie’s teacher, the role model for what a woman can be and what a woman’s presence in the world can mean. So having somebody who can embody a sense of sexiness and bodaciousness, but also be grounded in wisdom, was what we were looking for. And I think we found that in Taraji.
Corey Hawkins as Harpo
Harpo is the sweet, somewhat clumsy, but good-hearted son of Mister. Scott, you also produced the In the Heights movie with Corey Hawkins. Did you recruit him straight from that experience?
Sanders: Corey Hawkins has such a great range and such a great energy, and he’s embodied many, many different kinds of roles, including most recently with The Tragedy of Macbeth. When I was showing Blitz an early cut of In the Heights, he called me up and said, “Is there any way Corey would play Harpo? He would be incredible.”
H.E.R. as Squeak
We’re jumping slightly ahead in the story, but Squeak is Harpo’s second wife. As her nickname suggests, she starts out as a tiny slip of a person who later grows into someone who claims more control of her destiny and life. Tell me about about getting H.E.R. to play this role.
Winfrey: My God, when I heard H.E.R. had agreed to do Squeak, that was a thrilling day.
Sanders: We got a call one day and they said, she’s going to go out and do all these big concerts, but she’s going to change her schedule around because she cares so much about The Color Purple and wants to be part of it.
Danielle Brooks as Sofia
That brings us to what once was your breakthrough part, Oprah: Sofia, Harpo’s powerhouse first wife. She starts out as a force of nature, but has her spirit broken by a racist, wrongful imprisonment. Danielle Brooks, who also played the role on Broadway, will play her again onscreen.
Winfrey: Sofia, Sofia, Sofia! Obviously, that has a lot of personal meaning for me. So I actually called up Danielle to pass the baton on to her.
Sanders: It was a surprise. That was so great…
Tell me about it.
Winfrey: She thought she was going to do her final, final audition. Instead, I popped up on the screen and said, “Sofia, So-FEEE-AAHHHHH!! It’s your day!”
Sanders: Wearing purple glasses and a purple turtleneck.
Winfrey: Oh gosh, that was so wonderful.
That must have been emotional for you too, right?
Winfrey: You know, I didn’t think it was going to be emotional for me, but it ended up being emotional for me too! She so wanted it. I was listening to her when we had Blitz’s assistant on, who was apologizing, saying, “So sorry that you have to do yet another audition, but something was wrong with the previous tape.” And then she goes, “I would audition as many times as I needed to, because this means that much to me.” And then I popped up: “Sofia, SO-FEEE-AAHHH!”
Do you remember who called to tell you when you got the part of Sofia in the original film?
Winfrey: Do I remember? [Laughs] No, I don’t have to remember who called me. I was in Steven Spielberg’s office auditioning with Willard Pugh [who played Harpo in that film]. And when we finished, Steven said, “You’ve got the part.”
Sanders: I learned many years into the process of working with Oprah and Quincy that Oprah’s name was not put on the movie poster in 1985. I don’t know, you weren’t a big enough star at that moment, or some nonsense like that? Later, having the opportunity to open up a big, giant Broadway musical and put her name on the marquee—Oprah Winfrey presents The Color Purple, and now you’ve moved to Oprah Winfrey presents The Color Purple movie—I think is a wonderful evolution.
Winfrey: Well, thank you, Scott. You know, I went to Steven and said [in a tentative voice], “You know, I think I’m…I’m gonna have this talk show? And I’m gonna be famous…they say.” He says, “Your name can’t go on the poster.” Years later, I think for my 42nd birthday, Quincy had a poster made with my name on it. So I do have a poster with my name, but there’s only one.
Well, they sure learned your name, Oprah. They learned it one way or another.
Winfrey: Yeah, it all worked out. It all worked out.
Will there be a different role for you in the musical film?
Winfrey: No. No…There’s nothing I would want more than if there could be a part for me, but I think there isn’t. I had my day, and that time has now come and gone. I have passed the baton and I feel really, really great about that.
How do we evolve it for another generation, for another audience, for people to fall in love with these characters in the same way that I did from the very first day? [In 1982], I read a review in The New York Times about The Color Purple, got out of my bed in Baltimore, went to the bookstore, and got the book. I read the book that day, went back to the bookstore, bought every copy they had, and then went to work and gave them out to everybody I knew.
That’s Oprah’s first book club!
Winfrey: [Laughs] When I moved to Chicago, I would take a backpack and walk home across the bridge so I could meet people and hand out the book. So it was my original book club! I was obsessed with it.
Warner Bros. plans to release The Color Purple musical film in theaters globally on December 20, 2023. It is executive produced by Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Mara Jacobs, Carla Gardini, Kristie Macosko Krieger, and Adam Fell.
This Q&A has been edited, with some questions added or expanded to supply context and clarity.
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