Oscar Winner H.E.R. to Make Acting Debut in ‘The Color Purple’ Movie Musical
THR is reporting that H.E.R., who took home the best original song Oscar for her track "Fight For You" from 'Judas and the Black Messiah,' is in final negotiations to make her feature film acting debut in The Color Purple movie musical.
Warner Bros. is behind the feature adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical, itself an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel by Alice Walker, on which the Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 movie was based. The story centers on a woman named Celie Harris and tracks her life-long struggles as an African American woman living in the South during the early 1900s.
H.E.R. will play Squeak, who, in the musical, goes from a juke joint waitress to an aspiring singer. (Rae Dawn Chong played the role in the original Spielberg feature.)
Blitz Bazawule, the filmmaker behind the Beyonce-fronted Black Is King, is set to direct the fresh take on the musical. Marcus Gardley penned the screenplay, adapted from Marsha Norman’s book and Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray’s score. Corey Hawkins has been cast in the role of Harp.
H.E.R., whose real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, broke out with EP H.E.R. Volume 1 and then 2017’s self-titled H.E.R., which was nominated for multiple Grammys, winning two, including best R&B album. Most recently, she released her debut full-length album Back of My Mind.