INTERVIEW: The Color Purple, Oprah Drops Bold New Trailer and Q + A

The Color Purple, the musical adaptation of the beloved book by Alice Walker and the Stephen Speilberg film from 1985, has a bold new look with a star-studded lineup. Oprah chimes in with director Blitz Bazawule in a recent press conference.

The Color Purple has changed so many lives since famed womanist author Alice Walker launched the book in 1982, which later went on to become a film directed by Stephen Speilberg with a screenplay by Menno Meyjes starring the likes of Oprah Winfrey as Sofia along with Whoopie Goldberg as Celie and Akosua Busia (my college professor’s sister, I’ve always loved that personal connection to the film) as Nettie Harris, two sisters who had vastly different lives growing up in the south with Celie facing 40 years of bigotry, sexism, and abuse and Nettie finding her way to a flourishing life in Africa, only to be reunited at the end of the film.

The Color Purple was a staple on college campuses in the 80s into the 90s, and when the film dropped in 1985, it became an anecdote for young Black women who finally felt seen for the very first time on screen with deep dives into the daily microaggressions of race, sex, and class.

Pivotal scenes involving the hardships faced by Sofia and Celie became iconic calling cards of the film, including when Celie must battle her husband, Albert (Danny Glover), with him basically calling her ugly to her face during a drunken rage as he takes on a wanderlust lover Shug Avery (Margaret Avery) who becomes a friend and something more to Celie showing her intimate loving affection for the very first time.

Fast forward to 2023, and we have a new iteration of the book and film as a musical film with Oprah Winfrey producing alongside Stephen Speilberg with a brand new director at the reigns, Blitz Bazawule (Black Is King, The Burial of Kojo). Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg are joined in producing roles by Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones.

The film stars an all-star cast, including Taraji P. Henson (What Men Want, Hidden Figures), Danielle Brooks (Peacemaker, Orange Is the New Black), Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fear the Walking Dead), Corey Hawkins (In the Heights, BlacKkKlansman), H.E.R. (Judas and the Black Messiah, Beauty, and the Beast: A 30^th Celebration), Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid, Grown-ish), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard, If Beale Street Could Talk), and Fantasia Barrino (in her major motion picture debut).To say we are excited about this full-force heavy-hitting level of acting and musical expertise is an understatement.

The new trailer reveal is vibrant and soul-stirring as we get glimpses of Fantasia’s beautiful voice, over images of Halle Bailey as a young Nettie and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as a young Celie in a beloved scene of Nettie teaching Celie about Africa and her desire to leave the south and go to a place where Black people are Kings and Queens.

The trailer flashes to scenes of Albert chasing Nettie away after she would not succumb to his sexual advances and a crying Celie is held back in the dark and rain as the only lifeline to love, and family is ripped from her. Albert declares for Nettie never to return, with Nettie declaring that she will write Celie every day and that “nothing but death will keep me from it,” as she is run off of Albert’s property by gunshots.

The trailer boasts the first new looks of Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery and Danielle Brooks and Fantasia in their reprised roles as Sofia and Celie, who they both played in the Broadway musical.

When asked why the remake was important, Oprah responded, “So the reason this moment is so important is because for as long is there is a need for self-discovery, self-empowerment. As long as there is a need for victory in someone’s life, as long as there is a need for people to know what it feels like to be loved up and to be made full and whole through somebody else’s love, there will be a need for the Color Purple. And so we have our iteration now coming out on December 25th. And I believe that in the future, this story just grows, and it never grows old.”

Oprah also shared why the film resonates with so many, even 40 years after the original, to which she replied, “I think it’s because if I may share with you all, I’m doing a behind-the-scenes documentary for HBO, and I just recently was interviewing some of the cast members I’ve been filming all along as Blitz was directing down in Savannah and Atlanta, but just sat one on one with each of the actresses and Fantasia, so deeply moved me.”

“She [Fantasia] said, ‘This film changed her because it allowed her to forgive. People coming to this movie will be healed. Because I was healed. I came from no education. I came from sexual assault as a young girl. I came from domestic abuse.

And I learned through this movie that not only could I heal, but I could forgive.’ And so I think the power that comes through Fantasia, that comes through Danielle, that comes through Colman Domingo, that comes through Taraji, the power and energy, and force of knowing that you represent a story that is at the heart of the need for victory in someone’s life. Yeah, it’s at the heart of the need of discovering who you are and recognizing that no matter what you’ve been through, you are still here. So when she [Fantasia] sings that anthem, “I Am Here.”

Oprah continued, “She is speaking to everybody who’s been told no, everybody who’s been turned down, everybody who’s been turned back, everybody who’s been allowed to believe that they could make it. And then they did, and they’re still here.”

She continued, “So this is a revival. It is a revival for joy. It is a revival for hope. It is a revival for forgiveness. And so the fact that Scott Sanders could see that and make it a musical, because when he first approached me about a musical in 2005, I go, ‘what’s he going to be doing? Dance around the table with Mr.?’ I don’t know how that’s going to happen. And he found he found a way to make it happen. And now Blitz has found a way, and I could just cry.

“Thinking about what Blitz has done with this new iteration because it is a classic. It is iconic. And to be able to step into that with the boldness, a vision that let’s had for this film, and create this magically realized version where we actually go inside Celie’s head is pretty incredible.”

Watch the new trailer below and see the film in theaters on December 25.