FE: Vibrant Color Purple remix
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Oprah and ‘The Color Purple' Stars on the new musical remake: "It's Bright. It's Vibrant. It's Us."
Of all the emotions that The Color Purple evokes, joy is typically not among them.
The musical remake of the 1985 classic film, out Dec. 25, doesn't change the narrative, but does filter it through a different lens - focusing on the moments that inspire Celie, the women in her life who lift her to that point and, more important, the healing that restores not only her humanity, but that of those around her.
Oprah Winfrey talks about the divine in relation to her connection to The Color Purple frequently, describing it as life-changing on multiple fronts. When the book was first released and she read its first words - about a young girl who is raped by her stepfather and gives birth to their children - it mirrored her own life, having had a stillborn child as the result of a rape as a teen. A local talk show host in Chicago at the time, she heard the movie was being made and was determined to play any role in the production, assuming it would be a non-acting one, but producer Quincy Jones saw her on local television and sought her out to audition for Sofia.
The movie based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers on a Black woman who suffers unspeakable sexual and physical abuse from the men in her life, sees her children taken away from her at birth, lives during the punishing times of a post-slavery South and is belittled by the outside world as unworthy of love. While her journey, told through her letters to God, eventually arrives at an intersection of peace and forgiveness, joy is something that seems fleeting for much of Celie's story.
Reflecting on the story, the three female stars - Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, and Taraji P. Henson - speak in reverence of the original film and the book. Henson likens it to Shakespeare for the Black community, and Brooks says, "I've been describing it as our cinematic heirloom. And I just truly feel that's what it is. It's the thing that you cherish the most that was passed on since 1985. You take care of it, and you pass it on to the next."
Despite that reverence, Henson can also see some of its flaws. "The first movie missed culturally. We don't wallow in the muck. We don't stay stuck in our traumas. We laugh, we sing, we go to church, we dance, we celebrate, we fight for joy, we find joy, we keep it. That's all we have," Henson tells THR during a recent interview, with Barrino and Brooks sitting by her side. "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."
Lean in and learn more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/oprah-and-the-color-purple-stars-on-the-new-musical-remake-its-bright-its-vibrant-its-us/ar-AA1lobBN
Thank you for reading! We welcome your comments.
Akasha Lin
Akasha Garnier for #TheWishwall
Author, Brand Expert, Filmmaker
http://www.akashagarnier.com
#ShineThroughtheNoise
Photo: Getty
Article inspo: OWN
Discover more gems: https://www.thewishwall.org/future-entrepreneurs
Of all the emotions that The Color Purple evokes, joy is typically not among them.
The musical remake of the 1985 classic film, out Dec. 25, doesn't change the narrative, but does filter it through a different lens - focusing on the moments that inspire Celie, the women in her life who lift her to that point and, more important, the healing that restores not only her humanity, but that of those around her.
Oprah Winfrey talks about the divine in relation to her connection to The Color Purple frequently, describing it as life-changing on multiple fronts. When the book was first released and she read its first words - about a young girl who is raped by her stepfather and gives birth to their children - it mirrored her own life, having had a stillborn child as the result of a rape as a teen. A local talk show host in Chicago at the time, she heard the movie was being made and was determined to play any role in the production, assuming it would be a non-acting one, but producer Quincy Jones saw her on local television and sought her out to audition for Sofia.
The movie based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers on a Black woman who suffers unspeakable sexual and physical abuse from the men in her life, sees her children taken away from her at birth, lives during the punishing times of a post-slavery South and is belittled by the outside world as unworthy of love. While her journey, told through her letters to God, eventually arrives at an intersection of peace and forgiveness, joy is something that seems fleeting for much of Celie's story.
Reflecting on the story, the three female stars - Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, and Taraji P. Henson - speak in reverence of the original film and the book. Henson likens it to Shakespeare for the Black community, and Brooks says, "I've been describing it as our cinematic heirloom. And I just truly feel that's what it is. It's the thing that you cherish the most that was passed on since 1985. You take care of it, and you pass it on to the next."
Despite that reverence, Henson can also see some of its flaws. "The first movie missed culturally. We don't wallow in the muck. We don't stay stuck in our traumas. We laugh, we sing, we go to church, we dance, we celebrate, we fight for joy, we find joy, we keep it. That's all we have," Henson tells THR during a recent interview, with Barrino and Brooks sitting by her side. "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."
Lean in and learn more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/oprah-and-the-color-purple-stars-on-the-new-musical-remake-its-bright-its-vibrant-its-us/ar-AA1lobBN
Thank you for reading! We welcome your comments.
Akasha Lin
Akasha Garnier for #TheWishwall
Author, Brand Expert, Filmmaker
http://www.akashagarnier.com
#ShineThroughtheNoise
Photo: Getty
Article inspo: OWN
Discover more gems: https://www.thewishwall.org/future-entrepreneurs
