Within the wake of the movie’s massively profitable Christmas Day launch, RogerEbert.com hopped on a name with Brooks and mentioned Sofia’s leap from stage to display, the encouragement Brooks obtained from Oprah Winfrey, and Brooks’ journey to making sure the timeliness of this early twentieth century character.
Since a while has handed between portraying Sofia on stage and on this image, was there any hesitancy in reprising the character?
Like my character says, “Hell no!” That is the reward of all presents proper right here. To be part of “The Colour Purple” in a cinematic manner is one thing that’ll reside ceaselessly. That is one thing that I am glad I get to be part of, get to carry onto, to get to share with my household and the world. So there was no hesitation in taking this function.
Is there something you wanted to do to be able to get again into Sofia’s sneakers?
I have been residing with Sofia for over a yr as a result of I had performed her on Broadway in 2015. So I knew her fairly effectively. I believe it is actually adjusting to the brand new method to the story. So having a brand new director, who has a really particular imaginative and prescient, and likewise adjusting to a brand new forged. They’ll are available in with their concepts and their method to the characters. However for me, that is enjoyable. The stuff I like is attending to discover and see the place issues go. Probably the most difficult half was saying essentially the most iconic traces in entrance of Miss Oprah Winfrey. That was the factor I attempted to remain level-headed about as a result of, you already know, you need to make her proud, or, I wished to make her proud. I do bear in mind on the finish of taking pictures the “You instructed Harpo to beat me” scene, we discovered one another, and we had been each in tears. She mentioned to me, “You probably did it. You discovered her.” That was simply such a fantastic second to share together with her.
Was there any manner you and Blitz up to date Sofia’s persona to flesh her out additional right here than on stage?
I believe so. It actually boils right down to the time Blitz took to search out his characters, or, his actors to play these characters. As a result of my audition course of took six months, he was capable of put in stone that he had discovered his Sofia. Due to that, I used to be given freedom once we had been taking pictures as a result of he trusted the alternatives that I used to be going to make. I simply bought to reside in all of who she was, as a result of as thrilling and as imaginative as theater may be, it additionally may be very limiting. As a result of when you lock a present, which suggests, when you open a present, you’ll be able to’t make modifications to that present.