'The Color Purple' stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks play "Hollywood Firsts" with The Hollywood Reporter. The stars discuss their reaction when they were cast for the film, their first day on set and the advice they received from Oprah Winfrey.
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00:00 I look like I was going to the club and on a red carpet.
00:02 Like I had a lot to learn.
00:03 And I look back at those pictures and I go,
00:05 you poor little girl.
00:06 (laughing)
00:07 I just didn't know nothing.
00:08 I was just so fresh green off the bus.
00:10 I see ya!
00:11 No pictures please.
00:12 Child, nobody wanna take a picture of that outfit.
00:15 (laughing)
00:16 Hi, I'm Taraji P. Henson.
00:18 - Hey everybody, I'm Fantasia.
00:19 - Hi, I'm Danielle Brooks and we are here
00:21 to talk about our Hollywood firsts.
00:24 (upbeat music)
00:26 (upbeat music)
00:29 - First time I learned how to pose was
00:34 we would have church pageants.
00:37 And I was a pageant girl.
00:39 And they taught me how to pivot my feet all pageant-y.
00:42 So that's that kind of posing.
00:44 Maybe not the posing you talking about, but yeah.
00:46 - Well for me, it's been 20 years ago since Idol.
00:50 - Jesus Christ, I didn't have to say that.
00:52 But I don't think I got it right,
00:54 but they were trying to help me.
00:55 I'm a little country girl,
00:56 so they would always tell me which camera to look in
00:58 when you see the red light.
00:59 I never looked at it.
01:00 But I tried my best.
01:01 That's for real, I never could find it.
01:04 But I tried my best and I think I was starting
01:05 to learn then, I'm better now.
01:07 - Well, when I was a child,
01:09 I always thought I was a supermodel.
01:11 And me and my best friend used to do local fashion shows.
01:15 And we perfected the mannequin pose, if anybody knows.
01:19 It's really nothing, we made it up.
01:21 So I would have to say in my early teens,
01:24 with my best friend in the whole wide world,
01:26 when we wore wrinkled clothes on the runway,
01:29 'cause it was clothes out of our closets.
01:31 - Love it.
01:33 - My first emotion was, are you crazy?
01:35 Did you do this?
01:37 Just because this is my first big movie.
01:41 And I just, I didn't know why they were calling on me.
01:45 But I stepped up to it and I did it.
01:47 - Well, I can't see anybody else playing the ceilings.
01:49 - Come on, give me some.
01:50 Come on, give me some.
01:51 (laughing)
01:54 - It was a lot of fun.
01:55 I just remember it ending with us doing
01:58 the electric slide with Miss Oprah.
02:00 Not many people can say that.
02:02 - It was different for me because I thought,
02:04 I think they forgot that that was my first movie.
02:07 So a lot of the camera calls,
02:09 I didn't know what the hell they was talking about.
02:10 - How to read the, just like.
02:12 - Yep, yep, yep.
02:13 So I kept pulling everybody to the side like,
02:15 where they wanna go again?
02:17 What are they talking about?
02:18 But I ended up getting it.
02:19 - You learn quick.
02:20 - Because my first time on set
02:23 was with all of the lovely ladies.
02:24 But I first saw Miss Oprah
02:27 and she saw me as the character, Sophia.
02:29 We both were just a hot mess,
02:30 emotional, excited about what was about to take place.
02:33 - I got that in my phone.
02:34 - You do?
02:35 - Yeah.
02:36 - Why you didn't ever send it to me?
02:36 - Because I'll send it to you.
02:37 But y'all were both boo-hooing.
02:39 Yeah, it was a moment.
02:40 - Make it yours.
02:42 She told us to own it.
02:43 - Yeah.
02:44 - She just reminded me, like,
02:46 I come as one, I stand as 10,000.
02:48 Which is something that Maya Angelou shared with her.
02:50 But we're all standing as one, but for so many.
02:55 I remember, it was Orange is the New Black.
02:58 And it was my first carpet.
03:00 The whole thing went, a whole mess.
03:02 My dress popped, all this stuff.
03:03 And I remember being so scared.
03:05 All these cameras, choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo.
03:07 And my tongue, my mouth just kept chattering.
03:09 Like, vrr-vrr-vrr-vrr-vrr.
03:11 I was so scared and nervous.
03:12 I was like, oh my God.
03:13 And I couldn't stop it.
03:15 'Cause I was just so like,
03:16 I can't believe this is happening.
03:18 They gave us these badges.
03:19 I was with Natasha Lyonne and Samira Wiley.
03:21 Gave this badge that said celebrity.
03:23 It was like, oh my God, we're celebrities.
03:26 What is going on?
03:27 I had leggings with holes in them.
03:29 - Oh no!
03:30 - And a turban, and like.
03:32 - It was idle for me.
03:34 But honestly, I didn't really care about the cameras.
03:38 So I just did my own thing.
03:39 'Cause I knew nothing about nothing.
03:41 I'm from High Point, South Carolina.
03:44 North Carolina, you know, Carolina girls.
03:46 So that was all new for me.
03:47 So I just did me.
03:49 And they enjoyed it.
03:51 I made everybody laugh, which I still do now.
03:53 And that gets me through,
03:54 'cause I try not to take it so serious.
03:56 - This is interesting.
03:57 So it was "Undercover Brother" back in the 1900s.
04:00 And I didn't understand fashion.
04:04 And I wore my street gear.
04:05 And I thought I was fabulous.
04:07 I had on some jeans.
04:08 - And you was. - I'm sure you was.
04:09 - And you was. - Fabulous.
04:10 - And you was.
04:11 - It just wasn't,
04:12 I looked like I was going to the club and on a red carpet.
04:14 Like, I had a lot to learn.
04:16 And I look back at those pictures and I go,
04:17 "You poor little girl."
04:19 I just didn't know nothing.
04:20 I was just so fresh, green, off the bus.
04:22 "I'm here!
04:23 "No pictures, please!"
04:24 Child, nobody wanna take a picture of that outfit.
04:27 (laughing)
04:28 - When I say inspire.
04:30 Yeah.
04:32 Now, I'm looking at everything.
04:33 I went home for three days.
04:34 I had time to reflect.
04:36 And I needed that.
04:38 And I'm like, "Yo, sitting with these women,
04:41 "being around my cast,
04:43 "playing this role,
04:45 "inspire in so many ways."
04:48 - I want people to feel hopeful.
04:50 Whatever they're going through in their life,
04:52 that it's gonna be okay.
04:55 You gonna make it.
04:57 So don't lose that.
04:58 And your faith, that's the biggest thing.
05:01 'Cause you can have all of the hope and desire for a thing,
05:04 but faith is when you realize,
05:06 regardless of how the pendulum swings in your favor or not,
05:09 that you will be okay.
05:11 So, keeping the faith.
05:12 What you will see in this film is humans being humans.
05:16 No one's perfect.
05:17 People fall, but you get back up.
05:19 People make mistakes in life.
05:22 You know, this thing called life
05:23 doesn't come with a guidebook.
05:25 You live and you learn.
05:26 How else are you gonna know if the stove is hot
05:28 if you don't touch it?
05:29 You know, so we gotta stop punishing people for being human.
05:33 You make mistakes if you man or woman enough
05:36 to own up to what you did wrong.
05:39 And there's redemption there.
05:41 So, that's what I'm hoping.
05:43 (upbeat music)
05:45 (upbeat music)
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