The Color Purple.Photo:Eli Adé/Warner Bros.
Eli Adé/Warner Bros.
Fantasia Barrinois Golden Globe-nominated for her lead role inThe Color Purplemovie musical — but as she reveals to PEOPLE, she almost turned down the offer to play Celie in thenew hitandcritically acclaimed film.
“I was shocked and amazed to see a Black woman, full figure, broad nose, big lips, natural hair, going through some of the things that I could relate to,” she says.
But when she played her on Broadway, “I hated it,” Barrino says bluntly. “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.”
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The Color Purple.Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
One difficult similarity: Like Celie, Barrino was sexually assaulted. It’s something she shared in her 2005 memoirLife Is Not a Fairytale, and the trauma resurfaced during her Broadway run.
Then, shortly after ending the emotionally and vocally grueling show, “I had to have surgery to remove two tumors on my vocal cords,” she says.
When she got the call for the film, “I was like, ‘I’m not sure if I can do it or if I want to.’ ”
“He showed me he was giving Celie an imagination this go-round for audiences to see how she got through. I was all in.”
Fantasia Barrino.Unique Nicole/Getty
Unique Nicole/Getty
Still, she says, the work “was taxing.” And it replaced the difficult self-work she was doing at the time.
“I had just started trauma therapy,” explains Barrino, for which “they go back into your childhood and start to help you heal things you’ve either forgotten or suppressed that are hindering you from adulthood. I had to stop therapy and allow Celie to be my life coach.”
The newColor Purpleis a stage-to-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical that premiered on Broadway in 2005. The film counts among its executive producersOprah WinfreyandSpielberg, the star and director, respectively, of the Oscar-nominated 1985 film.
For more on Fantasia Barrino, pick up this week’s issue ofPEOPLE, out now.
source: people.com
