Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor took a swipe at her own movie The Colour Purple after the queer romance storyline was erased.
The San Francisco-born actress, 54, who is bisexual, played Mama in the 2023 remake of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker.
‘The Color Purple is a book about Black lesbians. Whether the choice was made to focus on that or not in the cinematic iterations of The Color Purple, it’s still a movie about Black lesbians,’ The King Richard star said in an interview with Buzzfeed.
‘People can try to say the story is about sisterhood, but it’s a story about Black lesbians. Period.
‘What is hard for me is that when we have those spaces where we can honour the truth of that, we walk away from it. We suppress it. We hide it. We sanitize it.’
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, 54, took a swipe at her own movie The Colour Purple after the queer romance storyline was erased (pictured in December 2023)
The actress criticised the directing choice during an interview with Buzzfeed – claiming that wiped out a core detail to the story (pictured Fantasia Barraino as Celia in the movie)
She went on to say ‘if you don’t want to be offensive, then you’re saying to the world that I’m offensive’.
The Origin star said she wanted to the storyline in the book ‘to be portrayed in the film with intention’ so people could walk away and think ‘I just saw about a movie about Black lesbians’.
She said the author Alice wrote the book with intention because it was about herself.
‘It showed me the possibility of myself and the possibility to love a woman who loves me in return. I’ll never get over that. It lives with me,’ she sadd.
The musical feature film boasts an A-list cast including actress and singer Fantasia Barrino as leading character Celie, Empire star Taraji P. Henson as Shug Havery, Orange Is The New Black’s Danielle Brooks as Sofia and The Little Mermaid sensation Halle Bailey as Nettie Harris.
The Origin star said she wanted to the storyline in the book ‘to be portrayed in the film with intention’ so people could walk away and think ‘I just saw about a movie about Black lesbians’
Whoopi Goldberg is pictured as Celia in the first movie of The Colour Purple from 1985
Directed by Blitz Bazawule, it boasts a stellar production team which includes Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders
It also features familiar faces Euphoria favourite Colman Domingo and Whoopi Goldberg returning as the midwife, and will also include famous singers as H.E.R., Ciara and Jon Batiste.
Directed by Ghanaian filmmaker and author Blitz Bazawule – known for musical drama Black Is King and more short movies – it boosts a stellar production team which includes Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders.
The hotly-anticipated movie was rated at 82% on RottenTomatoes and got a 7/10 on IMDb, and came out in UK theatres on January 26 distributed by Warner Bros.
