H.E.R. (born Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) is slated to make her big-screen debut in the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical version of The Color Purple.
The Grammy and Oscar-winning singer is set to portray Squeak – a juke joint waitress/aspiring singer – in the film adaptation produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, the 1985 film’s star and director.
In the original Spielberg film, Rae Dawn Chong played the role of Squeak , while Krisha Marcano portrayed the character in the original Broadway cast version.
Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel subsequently adapted from the 1985 film, the Tony-winning musical starred Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia Erivo during its 2015 revival. First announced plans to produce a feature film in 2018 led to a lengthy development and the adaptation has added Beyonce’s Black Is King collaborator Blitz Bazawule as director.
Warner Bros. will release The Color Purple adaptation and has set a release date of December 23rd, 2023 for the big-screen musical.
In 2016, Rolling Stone talked with Erivo about her show-stopping rendition of the musical’s “I’m Here.” “I feel super proud to be able to sing that song because I feel like it’s not specifically just for me,” Erivo said. “I feel like it’s for all people who need a moment to check in with themselves and realize that they themselves are OK, and they don’t need many things to make them OK. I feel like that isn’t specifically just for Celie; I think that she sings it for everyone else as well.”
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Author: Brad LeBeau
Photo: MTV International