Watch Oprah Surprise a Weeping Danielle Brooks With “The Color Purple” Role

“My coronary heart is so full.” That is the mantra Danielle Brooks repeated as she acquired a career-defining name from Oprah Winfrey. On Feb. 3, it was introduced that the actor could be portraying Sofia within the forthcoming “The Shade Purple” film musical produced by Winfrey, whose prior portrayal of Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation earned her an an Oscar nomination. An emotional video of Winfrey sharing the information with Brooks aired throughout a particular installment of ABC’s “Soul of a Nation.”

“Blessings upon blessings,” Brooks wrote on Instagram following the information. This may not be Brooks’s first encounter with the fierce character: the actor made her Broadway debut as Sofia within the 2015 stage revival of “The Shade Purple.” Brooks then went on obtain a Tony Award nomination for finest featured actress in a musical. Winfrey informed a weepy Brooks, “I am so completely happy to go no matter baton from 35, virtually 40, years in the past to you, and I do know you are gonna kill it.”

Rounding out the forged is Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo; Fantasia Taylor; Halle Bailey; Corey Hawkins; and H.E.R., within the singer’s first main appearing position. Taylor additionally has prior expertise with the textual content, as she portrayed Celie on Broadway in 2007. “Reimagining the beloved musical on to the massive display is a problem,” Winfrey wrote on Instagram, “however we as producers really feel ready to take it head on with the staff we have introduced collectively.”

“The Shade Purple” was born from the thoughts of Alice Walker, who printed the novel in 1982. It gained a Pulitzer Prize and Nationwide Ebook Award the next 12 months, although it’s sadly nonetheless banned from some faculty libraries. Along with Spielberg’s movie adaptation, which acquired an Oscar nomination for finest image, “The Shade Purple” was later translated right into a musical by Scott Sanders. The stage manufacturing initially ran from 2005 to 2008 and was revived in 2015.

The upcoming adaption will likely be directed by Ghanaian filmmaker Blitz Bazawule, who codirected Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” visible album. “The Shade Purple: The Musical” is at the moment scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 20, 2023.