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00:00 (audience cheering)
00:01 Hello, everybody!
00:03 Oh, how y'all feeling out here?
00:07 Yes!
00:08 I am Goddess Rivera.
00:11 I am the new, very new, and first
00:16 Chief Content Officer of Essence Ventures.
00:23 I am so, so excited to be here today.
00:30 You know, as a Chief Content Officer,
00:32 we are all about beautiful stories,
00:35 and at Essence, we're all about what is most beautiful
00:38 and lovely and enduring in black culture.
00:41 And I can tell from your reactions to that last video
00:47 that you're excited to hear about one of the most
00:50 everlasting and enduring stories.
00:53 (audience cheering)
00:54 So today, I'm gonna bring a couple of folks up here
00:59 to talk with me about the story, The Color Purple.
01:04 Can y'all make some noise?
01:06 (audience cheering)
01:08 Okay.
01:09 So I'm going to bring back out someone
01:14 who is so integral to this story.
01:17 I think you may have just heard from her.
01:19 I would love to have Miss Oprah Winfrey.
01:22 (audience cheering)
01:27 - Say it again.
01:28 - Give her some love.
01:30 (audience cheering)
01:33 Come on.
01:35 I also want to bring out the visionary director,
01:38 Mr. Blitz Bazawule.
01:40 - Blitz Bazawule.
01:43 - And as Suge Avery,
01:49 the totally fabulous Taraji P. Henson.
01:55 (audience cheering)
01:58 Show her that love.
02:10 And as Sophia, the incredible Danielle Brooke.
02:14 (audience cheering)
02:23 And as Celie, making her feature film debut,
02:27 if you can believe that, Miss Fantasia.
02:31 - Fantasia Varona.
02:35 (audience cheering)
02:39 - Show us some love.
02:46 Ooh, the crowd is hype, y'all.
02:52 We love it, we love it.
02:53 - We love it, we love it.
02:55 - Yes.
02:55 So, you know, we have to start with you, Miss Oprah.
03:00 I want to talk about this seminal work,
03:04 you know, that really in large part,
03:07 you know, thanks to you, has become enduring, everlasting.
03:11 It's continued to reinvent and reinvigorate itself.
03:15 I would love to sort of hear from you,
03:17 you know, what has your experience been?
03:19 You've been so involved with this story
03:22 for almost 40 years, my goodness.
03:24 - Yes, it'll be 40 years in a couple of years.
03:28 So yes, started with the book, then it was a movie,
03:32 then it was a Broadway play,
03:33 then it was another version of the Broadway play,
03:35 and now full circle moment to this extraordinary cast
03:39 for The Color Purple.
03:43 - Thank you.
03:44 Amazing.
03:46 So let's talk about the cultural impact.
03:49 I mean, it has been absolutely massive.
03:52 You know, it's not just the story itself, The Color Purple,
03:57 but it's the characters.
03:59 It's the characters that stick with us.
04:00 We can hear all the love that we get for those characters
04:03 and for you all as you come out.
04:05 You know, so I think what I would love to sort of hear from,
04:08 and I want to pose this to all of you,
04:09 you know, what is the importance of sort of continuing
04:13 the legacy of this powerful story and the characters in it?
04:18 Anybody?
04:20 I'll call on you now.
04:22 - Well, I mean, I'll just never forget.
04:25 It came out 1985.
04:29 I was 15, and that is when I started to dream
04:35 of seeing myself on the big screen.
04:41 And it almost had the same emotional impact that Roots had.
04:46 And flash forward to 1985, and I see us again in this light.
04:52 First of all, it allowed me to dream
04:58 because you can't achieve it if you don't see it.
05:02 And so I saw all of these beautiful people
05:04 that looked like me on the big screen,
05:07 and I was like, this is what I want to do.
05:09 I know this is what I want to do
05:10 because they did it means I can do it.
05:13 But not only that, I think as I got older,
05:16 and I read the book later on,
05:18 it proved to me the resilience of the black person,
05:25 the black people.
05:26 And out of all the things that we've gone through,
05:30 it made me be able to celebrate my culture
05:36 and all that we have been able to overcome.
05:40 And I've had my fair share of trauma
05:44 and misfortunes coming up as a black girl
05:48 in a hood in Washington, D.C.
05:50 But--
05:52 - Oh, D.C. and out.
05:53 - Yeah, but the one beautiful thing about us
05:58 is our resilience.
05:59 We don't wallow in our trauma.
06:01 We have this power to overcome.
06:07 I feel like we are the earth's phoenixes.
06:09 We rise from the ashes.
06:11 I don't care what you give us,
06:12 we'll make magic out of that.
06:14 And so that's been how impactful this story has been to me.
06:20 It's the through line of our culture.
06:22 It's like our Shakespeare.
06:24 It'll be here long after we're gone, this story.
06:28 But it's been just so impactful to me, and still is.
06:33 Love that.
06:35 Danielle, sound like--
06:36 - Hey, y'all.
06:37 First of all, what's up?
06:39 (laughs)
06:40 This is my first Essence Fest,
06:42 so I'm very excited to be here.
06:44 (audience cheers)
06:46 This is great.
06:47 The impact this piece has had on me,
06:51 I mean, it starts from a young girl from South Carolina.
06:55 Yeah, 15 years old.
06:59 My dad took me to my first Broadway show,
07:02 and there wasn't really any Broadway shows at the time
07:05 that had black people in 'em, but the color purple.
07:08 And so he took me to see that, and I was in awe, y'all.
07:12 I was amazed at the professionalism on that stage
07:17 of people that looked like me.
07:19 And I remember bawling my eyes out, crying,
07:22 and saying, "This is what I have to do.
07:24 "I have to do this, God.
07:26 "I don't know how you gonna make away
07:27 "this little girl from South Carolina.
07:29 "I don't know how, but I gotta do that."
07:31 10 years later, I get to do my first Broadway show,
07:35 and it was the color purple.
07:37 (audience cheering)
07:38 It was the color purple.
07:39 - Spoke that thing.
07:40 - Spoke that thing, manifested it.
07:42 And so now, however many years later,
07:46 I get to be, and let's just slow this down.
07:50 I get to first have the honor of auditioning for the movie
07:55 and get the baton passed by the one and only Oprah Winfrey.
08:05 (audience cheering)
08:07 That is like some dream stuff.
08:09 You know, like that's like, you dreaming it,
08:12 and God has made it bigger than what you could dream, right?
08:15 And so to get to step into the role of Sophia
08:19 has just, it's amazing.
08:22 And I just, I'm excited for our community.
08:25 I'm excited for our culture.
08:27 And I'm excited to hopefully inspire
08:32 another young black girl that will now see Danielle Brooks
08:36 at movie theaters and say, "I can do it too."
08:39 (audience cheering)
08:42 - Well, love you too, girl.
08:47 (audience cheering)
08:50 So for me, you know, it started off music,
08:55 but music and movies in the black community was a big,
09:02 big thing, it was a way that we were able to escape
09:05 a lot of things that were really going on.
09:09 And so I had, I didn't think I would ever be on Broadway
09:13 or be doing a movie, but I knew that when I saw
09:17 Color Purple, me and Celie had a lot in common.
09:20 This is when I was young, and I remember watching her
09:25 and I was like, wow, at a young age,
09:28 I started going through a lot of things.
09:30 So when they asked me, I'm about like Danielle,
09:32 when they asked me to do the Broadway play,
09:35 that was my first time seeing a Broadway show.
09:38 And I was thinking, "You want me to do that?"
09:43 I remember being blown away at the commitment
09:48 that they were putting in on stage to bring that story
09:53 to life, and it moved the room.
09:55 I was crying, not only was women crying, men was crying too.
10:01 And I was able to see that through the story,
10:04 men were being healed and women were being healed.
10:08 So I played it, and it was the hardest thing
10:11 I had ever done, hard, because I realized
10:15 that I was so much like her that I didn't know
10:18 how to let it go when the lights were out
10:21 and they said it was over.
10:23 So when Scott Sanders called me to play it again,
10:26 I immediately said, "Nope, I can't do it, Scott.
10:30 "Can't do it."
10:31 He says, "Why?"
10:32 I said, "Because, Scott, she and I are too much alike
10:36 "and it's heavy."
10:38 But I realized this time I wasn't in the same place
10:44 that I was when I played it.
10:45 - Come on.
10:46 (audience applauding)
10:48 Yes.
10:49 - So I got to see some things from Celie this time
10:54 that was totally different from when I played it
10:57 when I was young.
10:58 Her resilience, her strength.
11:01 She was beautiful, smart.
11:04 She kept everybody together.
11:06 She was my grandmother, my aunties,
11:09 all the women that we seen growing up.
11:11 And so this story is so important.
11:15 I am Celie, she is Sophia.
11:18 That's Sugar Avery, y'all, I'm telling you.
11:20 (audience laughing)
11:21 For real.
11:22 I got footage, I'm gonna post it later on.
11:24 (audience laughing)
11:27 But we all walked into these roles
11:30 and we did it for the women who came before us
11:33 and the young women sitting out here
11:35 who's gonna come after us.
11:37 (audience applauding)
11:40 - You know, that makes you proud, right?
11:47 - Very proud.
11:47 - Yeah.
11:48 - Wow.
11:49 - This is Blitz Bajuele who is taking this film
11:51 - Yes.
11:52 - And visually exalted it, exalted our story.
11:57 - So Blitz, tell us a little bit about your vision
12:01 when you started thinking about
12:02 the power of a story like this.
12:05 - Well, first, it is truly an honor to be here.
12:09 This is my first Essence Festival as well.
12:12 So--
12:13 - Show 'em love.
12:14 - It has been just marvelous to be here
12:17 and to see so many beautiful black people.
12:21 You know, when you get a phone call that says,
12:25 you know, there's an opportunity
12:26 to reimagine the color purple, you get very nervous.
12:31 You know, because you know what it means to the culture,
12:37 you know it's important,
12:38 you know what it means to black women specifically,
12:43 and you first go, do I have something to say?
12:49 Do I have something to contribute?
12:51 If you don't, you better walk away.
12:54 And it took me a while to think about
12:59 what could be added to such an incredible canon of work,
13:03 starting of course with Alice Walker's
13:06 brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning book,
13:08 Steven Spielberg's cinematic classic,
13:11 the Broadway play Tony Award winning,
13:15 pretty much the general multiverse
13:17 that is the color purple.
13:18 Right, you ask yourself, what can I bring?
13:20 And I'm originally from Ghana, born and raised in Ghana.
13:24 (audience cheering)
13:25 Yes.
13:26 And you know, I go back to my grandmother's stories.
13:32 My grandmother was the ultimate survivor.
13:35 She was the one who kept us all together.
13:37 Her stories are the stories that flow in me.
13:41 Her stories were imaginative, a magical realist,
13:45 and everything I've touched since
13:47 have come from that endless well.
13:49 And so that was the first thing I thought was,
13:52 if we can imbue in Celie an imaginative plane,
13:57 somewhere she can go,
13:59 as we know about people who have survived trauma,
14:03 the mind is the most fertile.
14:06 The mind and the imagination
14:08 is where we free ourselves first.
14:11 We free ourselves here,
14:13 then we're able to free ourselves physically.
14:15 So I knew for sure that once Celie had an imagination,
14:18 the rest was gonna find its way.
14:21 And I think that's what's special about this version,
14:24 Celie's mind, and how we navigate her mind.
14:27 It also gives her power.
14:30 It keeps us constantly with her and not her oppressors.
14:35 And this is what I think is special
14:36 about this version of the film.
14:39 I love that.
14:40 (audience applauding)
14:41 Thank you. Yes.
14:43 I wanna talk to you, Taraji, a little bit.
14:45 She says you are Suge.
14:47 You are embodying that character, right?
14:50 But it's interesting because you talked about
14:53 your sort of experience with the film,
14:55 and the book, and just how much the story meant to you.
15:00 But I believe you once turned down the opportunity
15:04 to portray Suge on stage.
15:07 On Broadway, yeah, I choked.
15:08 On stage.
15:09 I was like, no.
15:10 So tell me a little bit about sort of that evolution
15:13 of that decision, and then sort of being able
15:15 to now reimagine, reiterate this character.
15:19 Well, I just know the work that goes into Broadway.
15:22 That's no joke.
15:23 Theater is for the strong, not the weak.
15:25 You don't have the luxury of,
15:27 "Ooh, I messed up my line.
15:28 "Can we do it again?"
15:29 Like, once the audience sits down in the seats
15:33 and they suspend their disbelief,
15:35 the show is on, and it must go on.
15:37 I don't care if you drop a line, a whole scene,
15:39 you better figure it out.
15:41 But not only that, a musical is a whole 'nother level,
15:44 because that is your voice.
15:47 And I just honestly, at the time,
15:49 didn't feel like vocally I was ready
15:51 to do eight shows a week.
15:52 I just didn't see it.
15:55 And so, I mean, it's funny how,
15:58 what's for you is you will have,
16:00 because I ran from it then, and it came back to me.
16:04 And I thought, oh, wow, okay, this one I'll do,
16:08 because it's one and done.
16:11 I don't have eight shows to do.
16:12 But I was actually like, how Fantasia was like,
16:16 "You want me to do?"
16:18 Like, what did you see in me that you knew,
16:22 first of all, that I could sing like this,
16:24 and that I could play Suge?
16:27 Like, I was like, when he called me,
16:30 it was during the pandemic, the shutdown,
16:32 and we were on Zoom, and I was like,
16:33 "Me?"
16:34 He was like, "Taranj, you are my Suge Avery."
16:38 - I don't sound like that.
16:40 (laughing)
16:41 I don't sound like that.
16:42 - Oh, she sounded like you, Liz.
16:44 She got you, Liz.
16:45 - But I just, so when the call comes,
16:47 when someone of this caliber and of this talent taps you,
16:52 you have to rise.
16:53 And then when you put me with this talent here,
16:57 I had to rise to the occasion.
16:58 And I love a good challenge.
17:00 And so I was just so honored that he saw this in me
17:04 and trusted me with this.
17:07 And then when I got the call from this queen here,
17:09 she was like, "Suge Avery is coming to town."
17:13 And I was like, "Ah, Oprah, call me!"
17:15 (laughing)
17:18 I was just so honored to be tapped.
17:22 Like, we know how much this film means to us,
17:25 to our culture.
17:27 And for me, like, we've all seen the film,
17:30 and everybody's like, "Did you cry?"
17:32 I didn't have the space to cry yet,
17:35 'cause I know I'm gonna be a mess when I see it again.
17:37 But I just, I kept pinching myself, like,
17:40 "I'm in this, I'm a part of this."
17:43 But it is just, prepare yourself,
17:47 'cause it's not the first "Color Purple."
17:49 Thank you, Steven Spielberg, that, you know,
17:51 for bringing it to light the first time.
17:53 But the most important thing about this film
17:56 is that it's told by us.
17:59 And you will see it immediately.
18:01 And that's why it is so important.
18:02 I don't know how many future director,
18:04 writers are out there, producers,
18:06 but it is so important for us to tell our stories.
18:11 Because one thing, like I said before,
18:13 one thing black people don't do,
18:14 we don't wallow in our trauma.
18:16 We celebrate, we dance, we sing, we go to church.
18:20 You know, it could be so much dysfunction in the family,
18:22 but you know what they gonna do when they play that,
18:25 what is it, electric slide?
18:26 We gonna get out on that floor.
18:28 All differences aside.
18:29 And that's the beautiful thing about this film.
18:32 It celebrates our resilience and our strength.
18:36 It really does.
18:37 So I was just, I was grateful,
18:40 and I'm still grateful to this day
18:41 for being able to be a part of something so great.
18:45 - I love the point that you made too about faith, right?
18:48 And our resiliency.
18:49 And it is a huge part of our culture, of black culture.
18:52 So I'd love to talk a little bit about the role
18:54 that faith actually plays, you know,
18:56 in the experience of this story.
18:58 There's a lot of faith in this story
19:01 through every retelling, you know,
19:03 from the book to the films to the stage, you know.
19:07 Talk to me a little bit about how faith
19:09 is sort of woven into this story.
19:11 Okay, the church girl, whoever wants to jump in.
19:17 - You know, when you think about faith,
19:21 it's real, but it also sometimes you lose it.
19:28 You lose it.
19:29 You go on this whole streak, everything's looking good,
19:31 and as soon as a little storm come,
19:33 you be like, wait, wait, wait, hold up.
19:34 Everybody in this movie, from Mr. to Harpo,
19:41 Sophia, Suge, myself, we all have moments
19:46 where our faith is going to be shook.
19:48 I think that's necessary.
19:52 Those are things that are supposed to happen
19:55 to keep us depending on God.
19:58 Right?
20:01 You get a little weary, but we never let go.
20:06 Celie never lets go.
20:08 Sophia never, when Sophia, I will never forget,
20:11 this was a horror scene for me,
20:14 and Danielle played the heck out of it
20:16 when she gets taken to prison.
20:19 And I go to take her food.
20:24 I go to bring her some joy
20:26 because I'm not used to seeing Sophia down.
20:30 She talk a lot of junk.
20:32 Sophia will fight.
20:33 A woman, a man, your brothers and all your sisters.
20:36 She will.
20:38 So in that moment, it felt so real.
20:43 I wasn't used to seeing Sophia like that.
20:47 She's been beaten.
20:48 She's barely lifting up her head.
20:51 I'm talking to her and she's rocking back and forth,
20:54 meaning I felt like they were probably doing so much to her
20:58 in the prison, she couldn't be the Sophia
21:00 that the town knew, that we all knew.
21:03 And when it was time for me to go,
21:05 the cop comes in and says, "Time's up."
21:08 And she begins to cry and wail like I never heard before.
21:14 So the strong Sophia who walked around and was telling me,
21:18 "Girl, you got to, no, no, let them do that.
21:19 "Don't let them, da, da, da, da, da."
21:22 It's gone.
21:23 Her faith had been shaken.
21:26 We all in this room have been shook a couple of times.
21:30 We fall, but we get right back up.
21:34 And if we can't hold on to nothing but a little piece
21:37 of the hem of his garment, baby, we gonna hold on.
21:40 So faith plays a big part in the black culture
21:44 'cause that's all sometimes we got to hold on to.
21:47 So that's my little piece and I'm out of there.
21:51 (audience laughing)
21:54 - Well, you know, you talked about faith,
22:02 but what you also just sort of gave an amazing example of
22:05 is also the power of sisterhood in this movie.
22:10 It's the sisterhood.
22:11 - May I say, may I just say, goddess,
22:14 I love saying goddess.
22:16 - Thank you. - Goddess.
22:17 Your mother named you well.
22:20 Take your sisters, take your family,
22:23 take your friends to see this movie on Christmas day.
22:28 Wear your purple, start now.
22:34 By Christmas time, we don't wanna be able to find
22:38 a purple fabric in the United States.
22:41 (audience cheering)
22:44 There should not be a purple feather
22:50 or purple shoe or sock in the United States
22:54 'cause we would have all gotten our purple on Christmas day
22:59 because as Fantasia says, there's a healing going on.
23:05 You see what you felt when you just saw seven minutes.
23:10 When you look at two hours of that,
23:13 you are gonna walk out of there filled up
23:17 and you are going to be healed.
23:20 Whatever it is that's stirring around in there
23:25 that needs to be resolved, it's gonna come up.
23:29 It's gonna come up because this is more than a movie.
23:32 This is more than a movie for all of us
23:34 who've been working on it.
23:36 It was more than a movie to get Warner Brothers to do it.
23:39 It was more, it's more than a movie.
23:43 It's more than a movie.
23:45 And so we want you all to revel in the experience
23:50 and to bring your friends and family and share this thing.
23:53 It's a really big deal for us.
23:56 - I'm just gonna say this right now.
23:59 God knows what we need when we need it.
24:05 - Amen.
24:05 - And why we needed this film now,
24:07 we're watching what the government is doing,
24:08 what this government is doing.
24:10 And so what we all need right now is faith.
24:13 And that's what you're gonna get from this film.
24:15 And I don't care, the devil likes to paint it up
24:18 and make he likes to be a bully,
24:20 but it ain't nothing we ain't never seen before.
24:24 We are still here and we ain't going nowhere
24:27 because of our faith.
24:29 So this movie was needed right here, right now,
24:33 in this specific time and history
24:34 to remind you of your resilience and your faith.
24:38 - Right, right.
24:39 Exactly.
24:41 - That's what it's about.
24:42 Y'all heard it, right?
24:44 We know what we doing Christmas day.
24:46 But that's exactly your point, Taraji,
24:49 that in so many ways we are under attack.
24:53 We are under attack right now.
24:54 And so thinking about the characters in "The Color Purple,"
24:58 and again, that sisterhood,
25:00 I would love to hear a little bit about
25:02 why that connection between these women
25:06 was so critical to their survival.
25:08 Because I feel that we all can take a little piece of that
25:11 to continue our survival today.
25:14 Danielle?
25:15 - Yeah, sisterhood is very important, as we know.
25:19 First of all, I'm grateful for these two women
25:21 that are beside me in the sisterhood and bond
25:23 that we have created together on and off screen.
25:27 And I also have to mention,
25:30 speaking of sisterhood, auntiehood too,
25:33 because just Miss Oprah has been so open and gracious
25:40 when she did not have to be.
25:42 She just left the door so open for me
25:45 to come to her about anything.
25:47 And one thing I just remember
25:51 in the beginning of the journey was her praying for me.
25:55 I asked her, I said, "Do you mind praying for me?"
25:58 And she did, because I have to start everything with prayer.
26:01 (laughs)
26:03 And that's right.
26:04 And so I'm just grateful for sisterhood and auntiehood.
26:09 And another thing that I bring up is brotherhood,
26:13 because let's not forget the men in this movie.
26:17 That's Coleman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Lou Gossett Jr.
26:22 And I think about my brother, Corey.
26:26 I had to audition for this part.
26:29 And like these two sisters who was like, "No, not me."
26:32 I was like, "Yes, me, I'm here.
26:34 "I'm ready to do this.
26:36 "Call my people, call me directly.
26:39 "I'm ready."
26:40 (laughs)
26:42 And they was like, "Nope, you're gonna have to wait
26:44 "seven, eight months."
26:45 I was like, "Okay."
26:46 But my brother, Corey, really advocated for me strongly.
26:51 And I just appreciate that.
26:55 And I wanna bring that into the conversation,
26:57 'cause it isn't just about sisterhood,
26:59 but it is about brotherhood.
27:00 And this movie is for the men too.
27:03 It's about their redemption as well.
27:06 And so, yeah, I'm very grateful
27:09 to have these women beside me.
27:11 I've had the experience of "Orange is the New Black"
27:14 where I've had sisterhood.
27:16 (audience cheering)
27:17 Thank you.
27:19 But it ain't nothing like this.
27:21 That was very, very special.
27:23 And I'm not taking anything away from that.
27:25 But there's something about this,
27:28 where we hold each other up.
27:30 You know what I mean?
27:30 We have each other's back,
27:32 the same way that Sophia, Suge Avery, and Celie have.
27:36 You know, there's just this automatic realness
27:41 and honesty that comes with the sisterhood of black women,
27:47 and that is reflected in the movie and off.
27:50 I wanna just bounce off of something that Danny said,
27:54 because I believe I told Queen O,
27:59 I said, "This is gonna bring healing to families."
28:01 Because right now, and let's just be honest,
28:03 a lot of families, some of y'all ain't talked
28:06 to several aunties in years, brothers, sisters.
28:10 It's true.
28:12 We walk around, and I'm not gonna go too deep,
28:15 but we have been trained to be against each other.
28:18 Come on.
28:20 Okay?
28:22 And so, what this movie is going to bring is healing.
28:26 Number one, to forgive people, 'cause we're all human.
28:31 You know that grudge you've been holding for so many years?
28:34 It ain't making them sick, it's making you sick.
28:37 So we gotta learn how to forgive
28:41 and allow healing to flow through our families,
28:44 because right now, there's a generational curse
28:47 that's going on to try to keep us against each other.
28:52 That's the truth.
28:53 We're gonna talk about the truth.
28:54 Not too long ago, I had a show,
28:56 and I was singing "Collard Greens and Cornbread,"
28:59 one of the sweetest songs you could ever sing.
29:02 And a fight broke out
29:04 between two of our kings.
29:09 And so on the mic, I stated,
29:12 why are we fighting each other,
29:15 but we will march when someone else hurts us?
29:17 We got to open our eyes and realize
29:21 that we are stronger together.
29:23 And what we hold and what we have is very powerful.
29:28 And they know it.
29:29 We have to open our eyes and realize it
29:32 and come together, stop holding grudges.
29:35 I had a lot of things that happened to me within my family,
29:39 but I'm sitting pretty, I just turned 39.
29:41 Honey, I forgive you.
29:43 - Today.
29:44 - I forgive them, and I want to see them win.
29:47 A lot of times, they are in that place
29:49 'cause they didn't have the help.
29:51 They didn't have nobody to help them.
29:53 So now that I've been out on the road,
29:55 I talk to my therapist every week, honey.
29:57 I got her on speed dial.
29:59 I don't care, I got her on speed dial.
30:01 Because I'm learning how to let go
30:03 of some of the things that I was carrying
30:05 that was affecting me from different relationships, business.
30:08 So I think that this movie is bigger than this.
30:12 What we're doing, we're not just sitting up here to be cute.
30:14 We got families, we got other things we could be doing.
30:17 We're coming out to tell y'all,
30:18 this is a movie your family needs to see
30:21 so that healing can run through your household.
30:24 Period.
30:25 - Come on.
30:26 - I'm telling you, real talk.
30:28 'Cause we need it.
30:29 And as far as the sisterhood goes,
30:32 ladies, we gotta stop competing.
30:34 I don't compete with women.
30:35 - Yes.
30:36 - I just don't do it.
30:38 'Cause there's nothing there for me.
30:39 It's empty, and it's the devil's work.
30:42 I don't, you know, if you follow me my entire career,
30:46 I be, whenever somebody is winning, I lift them up.
30:50 Because can't nobody take from me what God has for me.
30:53 - Come on.
30:54 - There's not a role that I didn't get.
30:56 It wasn't my blessing.
30:58 It was that sister's blessing.
31:00 And thank God for her blessing.
31:02 So I don't compete with my sisters.
31:05 I hold hands with my sisters.
31:06 I lift my sisters up.
31:08 And any of the young ladies out here,
31:10 don't compete with each other.
31:12 We need each other.
31:13 And you know what?
31:14 We're more powerful in numbers.
31:17 Way more powerful in numbers.
31:19 - She's telling the truth
31:21 'cause she came to my show the other day and I cried.
31:25 I did.
31:26 - And I hate leaving the house.
31:27 (laughing)
31:29 - I know we don't have much time left,
31:31 but we've been talking about a lot today.
31:34 And someone mentioned the electric slide.
31:36 We're talking about music too, right?
31:39 The music that is so much a part of who we are
31:41 and is so much a part of every iteration of this story.
31:46 I would love to hear from you Blitz.
31:47 What is sort of the genesis of the music
31:50 of "The Color Purple" in this new evolution?
31:54 - Oh my God.
31:55 The music was the centerpiece of this film.
32:00 I mean, first for me,
32:02 I don't think there's any culture in the world
32:04 that can compete with African-American
32:07 creative and intellectual genius
32:12 when it comes to sonics.
32:14 Nobody.
32:15 And I think that when I first got the job,
32:19 it was about figuring out how to navigate
32:22 that evolution of music.
32:24 We inherited music from Broadway, yes.
32:29 But we needed to figure out how it was going to work
32:31 in a cinematic way.
32:33 And so for me, it started with gospel
32:36 that then went into blues, that went into jazz.
32:39 And then we could tell the story.
32:42 So of course, if you're thinking gospel,
32:44 then Tamela Mann.
32:46 - Yes.
32:47 - Okay.
32:48 Ricky Dillard.
32:50 Okay.
32:50 So we went to the OGs and we said,
32:53 we need to create something incredible here.
32:56 And they brought that gift.
32:59 When we moved on to blues,
33:00 we got Keb' Moe, who is incredible.
33:02 When we moved on to jazz,
33:05 we brought Christian McBride along to help us arrange.
33:08 And I think, you know,
33:09 when you experience this film on Christmas day,
33:11 you're going to experience the brilliance
33:15 that is black music
33:16 and the journey of itself
33:18 and how it tells its own story
33:21 over which we can layer Celie's story.
33:23 And I think that was what was special about this.
33:26 - I love it.
33:27 Yes.
33:28 - Thank you.
33:28 - Well, I know we don't have much time.
33:30 I would love to pose one of the last questions
33:33 and I'd love to hear from you, Ms. Oprah.
33:35 My mama said I have to call you Ms. Oprah.
33:38 I'm sorry.
33:39 I can't turn it-
33:40 - All right, Ms. Goddess.
33:41 I'm gonna call you that.
33:42 Okay.
33:44 But I would love to hear from you.
33:47 Why do you feel that us as a culture, as a community,
33:51 tell us why we have to continue to fight for
33:56 and ensure that this story endures?
34:00 - Well, it will endure as it has over 40 years.
34:05 And now this new re-imagined Blitz Buswell-y version
34:14 will have its time in our culture.
34:19 And then there will be another,
34:21 maybe 30, 40 years from now,
34:23 because the story of forgiveness and redemption
34:27 and healing and triumph that has been expressed
34:31 so beautifully by Fantasia and the cast here today,
34:35 that story endures.
34:37 And that is the story of the color purple.
34:40 And that's why it will go on and on and on.
34:43 And that's why whether, you know,
34:45 I started out by saying this isn't your mama's color purple,
34:48 but your mama gonna love it.
34:50 Because the foundations of truth
34:55 that are threaded throughout the original
34:59 carry on in this version and will continue to carry on.
35:03 - Thank you so much.
35:05 - And will continue.
35:06 - Thank you. - Haven't I been amazing?
35:07 - Get your purple on.
35:09 That's all I got to say.
35:10 You have heard the assignment.
35:12 - Yes.
35:13 - But right before we go,
35:17 I think we might have a little surprise
35:20 for a certain someone.
35:23 Let's help me out, help me out.
35:25 - Happy birthday!
35:25 - Happy birthday Fantasia!
35:28 - Happy birthday!
35:32 - Yes!
35:34 Okay, I feel like, can we do this for her real quick?
35:36 One, two, we gonna do our versions.
35:38 Can I get a,
35:39 ♪ Happy birthday to ya ♪
35:43 ♪ Hey ♪
35:43 ♪ Happy birthday to ya ♪
35:47 ♪ Happy birthday ♪
35:49 ♪ Happy birthday to ya ♪
35:53 ♪ Happy birthday to ya ♪
35:57 ♪ Happy birthday ♪
36:00 - Can we do the bridge?
36:01 (laughing)
36:03 - Thank you y'all, God bless you, thank you.
36:05 - We love you.
36:07 - Thank you all so much for coming.
36:09 Thank you to the incredible cast and the color purple
36:12 and thank you for hanging out with us today.
36:15 (cheering)