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On Wednesday night, Oprah Winfrey and the cast of The Color Purple attended a screening of the musical, shortly after receiving a SAG best ensemble nomination.
The event was also used to dispel rumors of tension between them. Kerry Washington moderated a Q&A session with Oprah, who produced the movie with Steven Spielberg, and actresses Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino after the screening at the DGA Theater in West Hollywood.
Henson had nothing but praise for Oprah, saying she not only “knows how to produce,” but that she brought “the pride that she has in this project” to set and it “poured into us.”
“I mean, she called and was like, ‘If there’s anything I can help you with, let me know,’” Henson recalled Oprah telling her. “And I said, ‘Well since you asked (Laughs).’ But this is the job of the producer, right? Some producers don’t even come to set, y’all. This is a blessing that she came. … But my point is that that’s the job of the producer, a good producer. And when I told her, she said, ‘Say less.’ The next day everything was fixed, and then she was on set for all the important and heavy lifts. She was there holding our hands with the whole thing, loving on us.”
Henson resumed to show her appreciation for Oprah, adding, “Thank you for pouring so much into us and believing in us and supporting us.”
Brooks noted that they finished the project as a family: “We roll for each other. We complained with each other. We rocked with each other. We were in trenches doing blood work with each other.”