The Color Purple - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Color Purple or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Color Purple

[camila]

Twelve people were credited for a nomination in the Best Original Score category, the most individuals that were nominated in any one category.

[lynn]

Jointly holds the record (with The Turning Point (1977)) for the film with most Oscar nominations without a single win (eleven).

[melinda]

Steven Spielberg, Jon Peters, and Peter Guber have ties to director John Landis. Peters and Guber had executively produced An American Werewolf in London (1981) for Landis, when they were running PolyGram Pictures. Spielberg and Landis have worked together three times. Spielberg had given Landis a cameo in 1941 (1979). In return, Landis gave Spielberg a cameo in The Blues Brothers (1980). Landis and Spielberg co-directed and co-produced Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).

[jamie]

Steven Spielberg admits that his greatest mistake in directing this film was his lack of courage portraying the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. At the time of filming, Spielberg feared that overt sexuality between the two characters would alienate audiences, a decision he now regrets.

[sara]

Color Purple co-star Rae Dawn Chong said the following things about Oprah and working with her on Color Purple back in 1985: "Oprah is a great brown-noser. If you're in a room with her, she'll pick the most powerful person and she'll become best friends with them. When we worked with her ... she was that fat chick that was the ... wannabe cheerleader that was the student council president that was best friends with the principal ... she was that fat chick in school that did everything and everybody loved her. That's Oprah - love me, love me, love me." Rae Dawn Chong also said she "has to respect Oprah" because "she's altered the DNA of the universe," but she also said "Oprah is boring; 'cause ultimately she's all about Oprah".

[camila]

Alice Walker, author of the source novel, attended the rushes at the end of filming each day, yet she was horrified with the final cut of the film, especially what she referred to as the "Oklahoma"-type opening scene. However, at the premiere, when she watched the movie with an enthusiastic audience, she changed her mind. She now says she likes the film very much, but thinks of it as being very different from her book.

[ethel]

Alice Walker may have had doubts about Steven Spielberg directing, but was at least partially convinced when she saw E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). After seeing the film, she felt that E.T. was treated like "a person of color".

[morris]

Because Oprah Winfrey had been accustomed to the TV talk show format on her then new show A.M. Chicago (1974), she found it difficult to avoid looking directly into the camera during her scenes, a habit that both amused and frustrated Steven Spielberg in the early stages of the shoot.

[gerald]

The first PG-13-rated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

[russell]

Quincy Jones got in a shouting match with Steven Spielberg over the amount of screen time his then protege Oprah Winfrey would receive in the film. After proving to Spielberg she had the acting chops additional scenes were added for the first time actor.

[wallace]

Both Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey became huge superstars after this movie.

[chris]

Whoopi Goldberg won the part of Celie in her audition for Steven Spielberg by doing a comedy act she had developed about a stoned E.T. getting arrested in Oakland, California for possession. The audition was attended by many of Spielberg's famous friends, including producer Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.

[cassandra]

At the dinner scene, Oprah Winfrey ad-libbed all her lines when she was talking to Whoopi Goldberg. After the scene, Goldberg walked over to Winfrey, gave her a hug, and told her that she now became an actress.

[melinda]

Steven Spielberg: [father] Nettie's father.

[jamie]

Before production, Steven Spielberg felt very insecure about being director of the film. In fact, his initial response to Quincy Jones' request was no. Spielberg felt that his knowledge of the deep South was inadequate, and that the film should've been directed by someone of color, who could've at least related to the struggles faced by many blacks living in the old south. Jones then argued, "No, I want you to do it, and besides, did you have to be an alien to direct E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)?" Spielberg appreciated his friend's logic, and decided to take the role as director of the film.

[marc]

The town scenes in the movie were filmed in Marshville, North Carolina. A key electrical pole could not be taken down in the middle of the street, so a tree was built to hide it.

[brent]

Oprah Winfreys name does not appear on the movie poster.