Hope you’ve got your tickets ready!
Source: Courtesy / Warner Bros. Pictures
The Color Purple Stars Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino Taylor And Taraji P. Henson spoke with Global Grind ahead of the Christmas Day release of their new film. The ladies joked about which of them was the “bad” sister, leaning on one another to get through the difficult production and how Hollywood has shifted in a way that they all are able to co-exist without being competitive.
We asked which of the ladies was the bad one in the sisterhood and Fantasia and Danielle wasted no time nominating Taraji P. Henson, who plays Shug in the latest iteration of projects inspired by Alice Walker’s novel.
“I love this about T – what you see is what you get and I love that,” Fantasia told GlobalGrind. “She was the one that kept us straight, going to say what we wanted to say sometimes and then the next one would be Sofia yeah and I love that. They both protected me and would say stuff like, ‘Girl don’t let them…’”
“Oh, please,” Danielle Brooks interrupted. “She was bad too in her moments.”
“Yeah she had some moments,” Taraji added.
“I did,” Fantasia agreed. “I think that I did because I think that a lot of times on set, some of the people who worked on set maybe really thought I’m Celie but I’m not, I’m ‘Tasia.’ but like you said a sisterhood sometimes it’s hard and then what we dealt with on set, the work that we did that was hard.”
“But we needed each other,” Danielle Brooks added.
Source: Courtesy / Warner Bros. Pictures
The trio agreed, noting that the dancing, choreographed by Fatima Robinson, was particularly difficult for them all. But all the ladies were on the same page when it came to agreeing that this particular sisterhood is devoid of some of the negative competition that was more prevalent just a few years ago. While the women denied being competitive in their performances or about their red carpet style, the TCP stars were quick to note that their dynamic was refreshing to experience.
“What I love about this, is sometimes as black women, it has felt competitive in our industry and I think that God is allowing us to show that we don’t have to do that,” Fantasia told GlobalGrind. “We’re going to break that generational curse. Everybody brings something to the table. Shug Avery is different from Celie. Celie is different from Sofia. So we were all able to bring what we needed to bring to the table and applaud each other, and congratulate each other. The dancing wasn’t easy, we all needed each other.”
Source: Courtesy / Warner Bros. Pictures
Taraji P. Henson agreed, expressing gratitude for what she and the cast of the film were able to accomplish through this project.
“What’s most important for me is the representation of the many looks of women that you’re bringing, you know,” Henson told GlobalGrind. “Because when I got to Hollywood it was one Black woman at a time. To be a young Black girl now, you got hair products, you got foundation… To be a young Black girl now with all this beautiful representation of all kinds of beautiful rainbow of how we come.”
“I came in right when that thing was starting to shift, starting out in Orange is the New Black,” Danielle Brooks added. ” I think we were one of the first shows to really feature and show that you really can have all of the different shades, it doesn’t have to just be the one and you can have sisterhood. I’m grateful that after that was done so long ago, that it still continues. You can find that with other women too in this industry. I love these women.”
We love these women too! The Color Purple is in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day.
