NC native stars in ‘The Color Purple,’ now in theaters

A new version of the classic story “The Color Purple” is now in theaters, and it features a North Carolina native.

Fantasia Barrino, 39, who is from High Point, stars as Celie in the musical reboot of the 1980s classic.

Barrino played Celie when “The Color Purple” made its run on Broadway, and she told CNN almost turned down the opportunity to play her in the movie.

“She carries everybody,” Barrino said. “And at the time I was on Broadway I was carrying everybody. And my life was so much like Celie’s. But I’m glad that I did it because I’m not that girl anymore. And I got to see so many different things in Celie. She was beautiful she was strong and she held everybody together and she went through a lot of things, but look at Celie now.”

The movie, which also stars Corey Hawkins and Taraji P. Henson — who has North Carolina roots — and others, is produced by Oprah Winfrey.

“It’s a beautiful reimagining, it’s not a remake of The Color Purple,” said Hawkins. “And that’s what’s special about it because it invites the older generation, but it invites the younger generation.”

Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel by the same name, “The Color Purple” tells the story of Celie, a poor Black woman in the early 1900s who finds self-worth, healing and happiness, despite devastating odds, with the help of the women around her.

Steven Spielberg directed the first iteration of “The Color Purple” for Warner Brothers, which shares the same parent company as CNN. It garnered 11 Oscars nominations with a star-studded cast including Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey, who as executive producer, helped the new film reach more advance theater buyouts than any other in Warner’s history.

The recent film adaptation, taking a cue from Broadway, is also a musical and emphasizes the message of hope more than the original film.

“I will have to say there’s a buoyancy and a joyfulness to this reimagining that wasn’t present in the first and that the music comes out of the spirit of the story,” Winfrey said.