Here’s what Oprah said about casting Beyonce in The Color Purple

Ahead of the Christmas Day release of The Color Purple, Oprah Winfrey has opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about some of the casting process. Halle Bailey, Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, and Colman Domingo star in the musical, second adaption of the 1982 Alice Walker movie. But did it almost star Beyonce? Here’s what Oprah has to say about her casting process.

Oprah Winfrey starred in the 1985 film and is producing this musical version which had its world premiere in London in November and will be released in theaters on December 25, 2023.

According to Oprah, the biggest deciding factor in who was going to be cast in the movie was the budget. The TV host says that if the movie had a smaller budget, the cast would have been “very different” due to the limitations of the smaller budget.

Was Beyonce ever considered for Oprah’s The Color Purple?

“Once the film moved to $90, to $100 million, then everybody wants us to bring Beyonce,” she revealed to TRH about the discussions that she was having with the studio about who they wanted to cast in the movie.

She revealed that there were some huge name celebrities that people were asking for, saying, “‘Can you get Beyoncé or can you get Rihanna?’ So we’re sitting in a room saying, ‘Listen, we love Beyoncé. We love Rihanna, but there are other actors who can do this job.'”

Plus, the fact that Oprah was looking to smaller names didn’t even take into account the fact that she said Beyonce was too busy with her Renaissance tour, album, and movie. “It wasn’t even a negotiation, because you’re not getting Beyonce,” Oprah said on the topic of getting the “Halo” singer to appear in the musical.

Despite not having huge Hollywood names like Beyonce or Rihanna in the film, Oprah revealed that she felt like the big budget was still very much warranted because of the vision she had for the project.

"I would have to say that [Warner Bros. co-chairs] Pam [Abdy] and Mike De Luca really got it from the first time they saw the film, and understood that they heard me and heard Steven and heard the team when we said, ‘This is the reason why this has to be done. You have to give us more money to do this because this is a cultural manifesto in a way for our community, and it deserves to have the support that’s needed to make it what it needs to be.’"

Taraji P. Henson, one of the musical’s stars, revealed that this musical remake of the movie and adaption of the Broadway musical version will have a different tone than the original film that starred Oprah. Instead of being heavy and emotional, Henson said that this remake will focus more on being light and focusing on the musical, vibrant elements of Black culture in America.

“We don’t wallow in the muck. We don’t stay stuck in our traumas. We laugh, we sing, we go to church, we dance, we celebrate, we fight for joy, we find joy, we keep it,” Henson said.