Trivia / The Color Purple (1985)

• Approval of God: Alice Walker attended the rushes at the end of filming each day and was horrified with the final cut, especially what she referred to as the "Oklahoma!"-type opening scene. However, at the premiere, she changed her mind after watching it with an enthusiastic audience. She later said that she likes the film very much, but thinks of it as being very different from her book.
• Creator Backlash: Steven Spielberg admits that his greatest mistake in directing this film was his lack of courage portraying the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. At the time of filming, Spielberg feared that overt sexuality between the two characters would alienate audiences, a decision he now regrets.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Alice Walker personally chose Whoopi Goldberg after seeing her stand-up. She gave an audition for Steven Spielberg where she did a comedy act about E.T. getting arrested while stoned in Oakland. Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson were also present.
• The Danza: Shug Avery was played by Margaret Avery, but that was coincidental, since that was already the character's name in the novel.
• Darkhorse Casting: Alice Walker sought out lesser-known actors rather than stars, since their rise from obscurity represented the experience of characters in her novels. Whoopi Goldberg was a stand-up comedian with one avant-garde film under her belt and Oprah Winfrey was a television and radio host with no acting experience. Other actors were mostly stage performers, such as Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, and Carl Anderson.
• Enforced Method Acting: In an interview with Akosua Busia (Nettie), she explained that in order to get the correct tone for the scene in which Mister evicts Nettie from his and Celie's house, she and Desreta Jackson were only given the instruction, "do not let Mister separate you two". When Mister finally wrenches the two sisters apart, Busia's distraught wailing of "why?!" was not scripted.
• Executive Meddling: Averted; Steven Spielberg banned producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters from the set due to their history of given "suggestions."
• Fake Nationality: Nettie is played by British-Ghanian actress Akousa Busia.
• Gay Panic: Steven Spielberg received criticism for omitting the book's lesbian content, a decision he would later regret.
  There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were finely detailed in Alice's book, that I didn't feel could get a [PG-13] rating. And I was shy about it. In that sense, perhaps I was the wrong director to acquit some of the more sexually honest encounters between Shug and Celie, because I did soften those. I basically took something that was extremely erotic and very intentional, and I reduced it to a simple kiss. I got a lot of criticism for that.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Quincy Jones got in a shouting match with Steven Spielberg over the amount of screen time his then protégé Oprah Winfrey would receive in the film. After proving to Spielberg she had the acting chops additional scenes were added for the first time actor.
  • A minor, yet long-standing feud between Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg began after Winfrey had improvised her now classic dinner table scene; Goldberg approached her and reportedly told her "she had now become an actor...". It is alleged that following the remark Winfrey rebuffed, "What do you know, this your first movie too!"
  • Rae Dawn Chong spared no detail in how much she didn't like working with Oprah Winfrey: "Oprah is a great brown-noser. If you're in a room with her, she'll pick the most powerful person and she'll become best friends with them. When we worked with her...she was that fat chick that was the...wannabe cheerleader, that was the student council president, that was best friends with the principal...she was that fat chick in school that did everything and everybody loved her. That's Oprah - love me, love me, love me." Chong said that she "has to respect Oprah" because "she's altered the DNA of the universe," but she also said that "Oprah is boring, cause ultimately she's all about Oprah".
• No Export for You: Alice Walker refuses to publish The Color Purple in Hebrew. She states it's because of her support of Palestine and the BDS movement.
• Real-Life Relative: Whoopi Goldberg's daughter appears in the movie as one of the children at the dinner table during Easter.
• Referenced by...: The Professional Wrestling promotion Excellence Professional Wrestling has a cat motif and its March 10, 2018 event was titled The Color Purrple.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Whoopi Goldberg, slightly famous as a standup comedian, became a big Hollywood name overnight.
  • Oprah Winfrey, still a local Chicago TV personality at that point, was able to launch her national talk show and eventual multimedia empire from her acclaimed portrayal of Sofia.
• Throw It In!: Sofia's speech at the dinner table was an ad-lib prompted by Steven Spielberg, in the middle of filming the scene. He asked Oprah Winfrey to express to Celie how she felt that day when she saw Celie in the store, as Sofia was shopping for Miss Millie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross and Sheryl Lee Ralph were offered the role of Shug Avery.
  • Alfre Woodard was considered for the role of Celie.
  • Nell Carter was considered for the part of Sofia.
• Word of Gay: Alice Walker has stated Celie is a lesbian and Shug is bisexual. She was rather disappointed this was almost completely left out of the film, save one scene between Celie and Shug.

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