Oprah Winfrey had a full-circle moment while serving as an executive producer on the reimagined film “The Color Purple.” But not quite one that moved her to make a cameo in the production that stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, and Danielle Brooks.
Instead, audiences were treated to one of the original film’s other stars, Whoopi Goldberg. The EGOT and Winfrey co-starred in the 1985 big screen adaptation of author Alice Walker’s book of the same name. Goldberg portrayed Celie, who is now played by “American Idol” alum Barrino, and Winfrey as Sophia, now played by Brooks.
In the new film, Goldberg plays a midwife who helps younger Celie, portrayed by actress, Desreta Jackson, give birth.
Winfrey told The Hollywood Reporter that “The View” co-host’s brief appearance was a “wonderful Easter egg for audiences who have appreciated the film over the years, for the diehards, and we also thought it was a lovely homage to Whoopi.”
The original screenplay, directed by Steven Spielberg, was a critically acclaimed success, earning 11 Academy Award nominations, including Goldberg for Best Actress and Winfrey for Best Supporting Actress.
Buzz about director Blitz Bazawule’s musical reimagining of the movie has been met with similar praise. When asked about her decision to not appear in the film, the former daytime talk show host said, “Actually, I thought about it. It would’ve been good in the church scene, but I thought it would also be distracting when Sofia is getting married that if the old original Sofia was just one of the people in the church.”
I wrote a paper in college about why The Color Purple didn’t win any Oscars and Whoopi named all of them. The NAACP were the main culprits. https://t.co/LhAZFM4UdH
— Tanya T. Morris (@TheMentorMogul) December 30, 2023
Winfrey added, “They were shooting that in the middle of Georgia when COVID was [spreading] like, ‘OK, well, I ain’t sitting in that church all day anyway. And also I just think it’s more special that it’s just Whoopi.”
Speculation that the two veteran entertainers were at odds with each other ran rampant when fans noticed that Winfrey did not join the film’s three stars when they appeared on “The View.” Rumors suggested that the Hall of Fame Emmy recipient deliberately snubbed Goldberg.
Reports of the actresses having a strained relationship date back to the late 1980s after the original film was released. In an October 2011 episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the women cleared the air regarding the false hearsay.
Similarly amid the recent wave of reports of behind-the-scenes drama, a Harpo spokesperson stated that a scheduling conflict was to blame for Winfrey’s absence at the roundtable and not underlying issues with Goldberg.
