‘The Color Purple’: Oprah Winfrey Reveals The Small Paycheck She Got For Oscar-Nominated Performance As Sofia
Oprah Winfrey is a media mogul but before achieving all of that she starred in The Color Purple back in 1985. Her performance as Sofia in the Steven Spielberg-directed film went on to earn her a nomination at the Oscars.
Ahead of the film adaptation of The Color Purple musical, which Winfrey produces, she is looking back and remembering the amount of money she got for her role as Sofia. Although the paycheck wasn’t huge, Winfrey says the experience was life-changing.
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“I can’t even begin to tell you what it means to me — a person who wanted nothing more in my life than to be in The Color Purple,” Winfrey told Essence magazine in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike. “God taught me to surrender — that was the big lesson for me,” Oprah said. “They were only offering $35,000 to be in this film, and it is the best $35,000 I ever earned. It changed everything and taught me so much. It is God moving through my life.”
Danielle Brooks is now taking over the role of Sofia for the musical film that opens on Christmas Day and is grateful for the road Winfrey has paved.
“I just want to thank you, Ms. Oprah, for surrendering to God and his plan for your life,” Brooks said in the interview. “You have shown me how to do that. Thank you for laying the blueprint for Sofia — because I know that she’s changed your life, and I can feel that mine is about to shift, too. Thank you for leaving space for me but also being there, to hold my hand and answer that phone call when I needed you. You have been such a light, such a beautiful soul.”
The Color Purple is a novel by Alice Walker that was published in 1982. The book gives insights into the problems African-American women during the early 20th century including domestic violence, incest, racism and sexism. Menno Meyjes adapted the book into a film that Spielberg directed in 1985 with a cast that included Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn Chong, Willard Pugh and Adolph Caesar.
In 2005, the film was adapted into a stage musical, which in turn was adapted into a film musical starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi and Fantasia Barrino.
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