When speaking about her performance as Sofia in Warner Bros.’ new big-screen musical “The Color Purple,” Danielle Brooks references Maya Angelou: “You come as one, but you stand as 10,000.”
The quote resonates with Brooks not just because it was imparted to her by Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s celebrated 1985 film, but because it confirms that she belongs in the role of the outspoken young woman who refuses to be cowed by bigotry in the Jim Crow South.
The words reminded Brooks that she represented the many different Sofias — the real-life versions of the character out there and the many actresses who have portrayed her over the years — but that she was the one playing the role in this film, directed by Blitz Bazawule.
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