Nearly 40 years following Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple became an 11-time Academy Award-nominated film, Hollywood is revisiting the Pulitzer Prize-winning story once again with the new 2023 reimagining. Ahead of the story moving audiences in movie theaters, one of The Color Purple’s stars, Corey Hawkins, opened up about how experiencing the film alongside his father was a powerful moment for him.
When The Color Purple cast came together a day after the premiere for a press conference, which CinemaBlend was in virtual attendance for, Corey Hawkins broke down in tears when he was asked about how the movie may have been “healing” for him. Here’s what he had to say:
My father got to sit next to me at the premiere and watch this story and he doesn't often get a chance to be himself. And, I know this was a lot for him meeting [the cast and filmmakers]. Last time he saw Danielle [Brooks] was our graduation. He's also blue collar. Our love language has evolved over the years, but to sit with him and watch him process and feel was special for me as a man, as a black man, watching how he responded to this story at this point in his life, after all of his trauma that I've witnessed and been a part of, I was watching him be healed by this story. And so, all I can say is that I'm just grateful that y'all gave the gift of Harpo to me at this moment in my life, because Harpo has a song… He has joy and he makes a decision to step into that and let that little Black boy joy. [The film] also gives him imagination. He imagines the juke joint, he imagines the new kind of love for Sofia, despite his flaws, he sees something better.
Hawkins, who has famously been in The Walking Dead, 24: Legacy and other music-geared roles in 2021’s In The Heights and 2015’s Straight Outta Compton, shared an impactful moment at the premiere of The Color Purple, to which he brought his father. Amidst the purple carpet glam at Los Angeles’ Academy Museum, which also had Halle Bailey going full Disney Princess for the cameras, Corey Hawkins found himself feeling all the emotions when he got to show the movie to his dad.
In The Color Purple, Corey Hawkins plays Harpo Johnson, who is the eldest son of Colman Domingo’s Mister, a farmer who abuses the film's main character. As the story goes, Harpo marries Sofia, who is played in the film by Hawkins' former classmate when they both went to Julliard, Danielle Brooks. Hawkins also said this about playing The Color Purple role:
He wants to change. And, he does. And, there's this little thing about imagination that always gets me. It's like we encourage kids to play. Go outside and play, right? Have an imagination. And, for some reason we turn a certain age and everybody says grow up and it is weird to me. But, I'm grateful for the work that we do as artists, as creators, as entertainers, because we have the luxury and the privilege to not grow up, to continue imagining for the people who are unable to imagine for the people like my father, like our parents, our parents' parents, our siblings who have to do this every day. So, I'm just grateful I'm still healing from this. And, seeing it last night was a healing moment for me.
Since the movie has first screened, The Color Purple has earned a lot of positive praise from audiences as well with people calling it “perfection,” “joyous & emotionally powerful” and “the best film of the year.” The film’s lead, Fantasia Barrino, has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role as well. Amidst one of the final of 2023 new movie releases coming to theaters, The Color Purple producer Oprah Winfrey shared her own moment with Hawkins’ father:
He came up to me on the carpet last night and he said, ‘Hi, I'm Corey's dad’. And I said, ‘You're Corey's dad.’ I said, ‘Oh my God’. I said, ‘Have you seen the movie yet? He goes, no, this is my first time’. And I said, ‘You're going to love your boy. You're gonna love seeing your boy’.
What a sweet memory Corey Hawkins now has about The Color Purple premiere! His emotional reaction to seeing the movie with his dad goes to show that there’s a lot of powerful material in the film that not only moved the actor, but will do so to many others. The Color Purple is playing in theaters now.
