She saw the color green.
Media tycoon Oprah Winfrey said Tuesday that her salary for the 1985 film “The Color Purple” was the “best $35,000 I ever made.”
Speaking with Essence Magazine, Winfrey, 69, revealed she “wanted nothing more in my life than to be in ‘The Color Purple’” when it was announced that Alice Walker’s Pulitzer prize-winning book would hit the silver screen.
“They were only offering $35,000 to be in this film,” Winfrey told the outlet for their May cover story. “And it is the best $35,000 I ever earned.”
The story follows a teen named Celie as she tries to live her life as an African American in the South during the early to mid-1900s.
In 2016, it was reported by Entertainment Weekly that Winfrey wanted to be in the film so badly that she “didn’t need a speaking role” and “was willing to carry the script, help people with the water.”
It was revealed during a 2014 interview with the Huff Post (formerly Huffington Post) that music director Quincy Jones also wanted Winfrey for the film.
“I saw this lady on Chicago A.M. and said, ‘If she can act, that’s Sofia,’” Jones, 90, said.
According to the former talk show host, playing the character in the original film “changed everything and taught me so much. It is God moving through my life.”
Directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg, the film had several high-profile stars including Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover.
Spielberg’s film was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress for Goldberg and Best Supporting Actress for Winfrey and Margaret Avery.
Despite not winning any awards that year, the movie spawned a Broadway musical of the same name starring LaChanze as Celie, Brandon Victor Dixon as Harpo, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia and Renée Elise Goldsberry as Nettie.
The show ran for three years before closing in 2008, but it was later revived and won several accolades including the 2016 Tony Award for Best Musical.
A-listers such as Jennifer Hudson, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Holliday, Heather Headley, Elisabeth Withers, Angela Robinson, Tony-winner Cynthia Erivo. and English actor Nicola Hughes have acted in the musical at various occasions onstage.
A film version of the musical starring Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson and H.E.R was announced in November 2018.
“West Side Story” director Spielberg is slated to produce the project under his company, Amblin Entertainment, alongside Winfrey, while Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones — who along with Winfrey produced the Broadway shows — are also on board.
“The Color Purple” is slated to be released on Dec. 20, 2023.