Cynthia Erivo Acknowledges Tensions With ‘The Color Purple’ Movie Team: ‘That’s a Long, Complicated Conversation’

When Warner Bros.’ 2023 movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “The Color Purple” began casting and production, many fans of the 2015 revival — and its Tony-winning lead actress, Cynthia Erivo — were surprised that its star would not reprise the role that made her famous for the big screen. After all, her Tony-nominated co-star Danielle Brooks got the gig to again play Sofia, with producer Oprah Winfrey’s personal blessing.

Instead, the original original star of the Broadway musical from 2005, “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino, landed the coveted (and demanding) role of Celie.

Now in the midst of her press rounds for her highly anticipated starring role as Elphaba opposite Ariana Grande’s Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of “Wicked,” the actress appeared on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast on Monday and acknowledged, for what appears to be the first time, standing tensions with the players behind the “Color Purple” movie.

The Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winning actress (and two-time Oscar nominee) shared, for one, that she was not invited to an early friends-and-family screening of filmmaker Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple,” despite, according to Maron, many members of the Broadway cast being there.

She also would not directly address whether or not she was up for Barrino’s role of Celie, but said that it’s “a long, complicated conversation that I probably shouldn’t even get into.”

“I went to a screening for friends and family, and so much of the cast from the original production on Broadway was there,” Maron recalled of his first time seeing the film ahead of his podcast interview with Bazawule (a “good guy,” he said). “It was so overwhelming.”

“Oh, wow, wow, wow. Oh, yeah, I didn’t get that invite,” Erivo responded.

The rest played out as follows:

Maron: “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Erivo: “That’s alright.”

Maron: “That feels like there’s a little tension.”

Erivo: “Well, I don’t know why though.”

Maron: “No, I don’t know either. Were you up for the part?”

Erivo: “Um, that’s a long, complicated conversation that I probably shouldn’t even get into.”

Maron: “Well, there’s your answer why.”

Erivo: “Yeah. Lord knows why. But, you know.”

Warner Bros. representatives for “The Color Purple” did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Of course, Erivo went on to star in perhaps the even more coveted lead role for “Wicked,” but she agreed with Maron that her experience playing Celie on Broadway ultimately prepared her for everything she’s done since, from Elphaba to Harriet Tubman (“Harriet”) to Aretha Franklin (“Genius”). The actress also shared with Maron how emotionally daunting the role of Celie was, particularly after playing her for eight shows a week over 14 months — around 400 shows total.

“I knew it like the back of my hand,” she said. “I remember I said to someone, after time 400 or something, you get called ‘ugly’ onstage, the line between you and reality and the character … the line is already kind of gone because your body starts to do whatever it needs to to get where it needs to faster. So you start, it becomes really thin, the veil becomes really, really thin, and so it stops being the character is being called this and it starts being you are. And you start feeling it, and you start believing it, and it’s really hard every day to do that.”

Of the musical’s famous 11 o’clock number, “I’m Here,” Erivo said that she had to live in a place where she learned to believe she’s beautiful — but only after inhabiting the belief that she was ugly.

“To be able to sing ‘I’m Here’ and to get to a place where you can say, ‘I’m beautiful,’ you have to believe to some degree that that isn’t the truth until you believe it,” she said. “I’m not myself, but I’m funneling all of my things.”

Listen to Erivo’s full “WTF” interview here.

The post Cynthia Erivo Acknowledges Tensions With ‘The Color Purple’ Movie Team: ‘That’s a Long, Complicated Conversation’ appeared first on TheWrap.