Is oprah winfrey still alive today 2023

Twenty years after I played Sofia in The Color Purple, I became a producer for the Broadway musical. Now I’m proud and truly blessed to be one of the four producers bringing the movie musical to the big screen. This upcoming version of the film has been a dream of mine and Broadway producer Scott Sanders for many years. So we went to the original director, Steven Spielberg, and the founding producer, Quincy Jones, to get their permission and blessing to join us, along with director Blitz Bazawule and screenwriter Marcus Gardley, in bringing a reimagined, evolved version of the Broadway show to a new generation of audiences. If you liked the original, I guarantee you’re going to be rejoicing when you see this version.

Alice Walker’s seminal work is one of the “national anthems for women’s empowerment,” says Oprah, shown here with the author at a curtain call for the Broadway musical in December 2005.

Recently, I took my first work trip in two and a half years and flew to Savannah, Georgia, to visit the set of the movie. Wouldn’t you know? It took The Color Purple to get me to finally leave my house. And, of course, Gayle joined me. She finished taping CBS Mornings at 9 AM, got herself on a plane, and was with us by that afternoon.

“Gayle didn’t want to feel left out of the party, so she invited herself along on my visit,” says Oprah.

I unexpectedly burst into happy tears at the very first sight of the gifted Danielle Brooks, who played Sofia on Broadway and now in this reincarnation. It felt like the baton was truly being passed on in one of the most special moments in my life. We both hugged and ugly cried together.

You all know movies are filmed out of sequence, which can often be challenging. On the actors’ first day filming together, they had to actually shoot the very last scene of the movie. So they all had to summon “end of movie” energy in the early part of the shooting schedule. Fantasia, who plays Celie, Taraji P. Henson as Shug, Colman Domingo as Mister, Corey Hawkins as Harpo, Danielle Brooks, and Ciara as older Nettie all brilliantly rose to the moment in that final scene when Nettie returns from Africa with Celie’s children. When Gayle and I saw the cast perform the finale, we couldn’t help but give a standing ovation. We nearly ruined the scene with our clapping and screaming, but they were so incredible, it felt like we were at a concert.

During the filming of the original The Color Purple, “there was a big tree that I would climb up and watch everybody from all day long,” says Oprah.

There were so many fantastic day players to help support that scene. On the final scene of the day, everybody broke out into dancing the electric slide and singing. Every person I spoke to, from the camera crew to the hair-and-makeup team, was delighted to be there. It was a joyful set, and it was only the beginning of a three-month shoot.

I can tell you for sure this version ain’t your mama’s Color Purple. But I bet you, your mama, and the whole family are gonna love it. It’s full of magical realism and visual surprises. It is beautiful and joyful. It’s hopeful and proud. And it carries iconic depth and meaning. All the things I believe people will feel when they see the film come Christmas 2023.

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