The actress, who played lead character Celie in the film, was nominated for an Oscar for her work

 

Whoopi Goldberg on the set of "The Color Purple"


Whoopi Goldberg on the set of “The Color Purple,” Whoppi Goldberg photographed at Paris Fashion Week in January 2025. Credit :Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty; Francois Durand/Getty

Whoopi Goldberg is looking back at her casting in The Color Purple.

On a recent episode of The View, where Laurence Fishburne appeared as a guest, the duo looked back on what it was like to work together on Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film, based on the novel by Alice Walker, which also starred Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Margaret Avery.

“I remember being elated that Whoopi got the lead,” Fishburn, 63, who played Swain, said of costar Goldberg, 69, who played lead character Celie in the film and was nominated for an Oscar for her work.

“I remember that …The Color Purple was so popular at that time, and Whoopi had just come off of her one-man show, and suddenly she was going back to work with Spielberg and all that stuff,” he continued.

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Laurence Fishburne talks about “The Color Purple” on the set of “The View”.The View/YouTube

Then, recalling a story about how Goldberg landed the part in the film, Fishburne said, “She wrote something, she said, ‘I will play dirt on the floor.’ “

At that point, Goldberg chimed in and confirmed, “I wrote that in a letter to Alice Walker,” referring to the author, who was also the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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Goldberg also recalled how she first learned ofThe Color Purple, and detailed the passion she felt when reading the story that led her to want to contribute to the film adaptation.

“My daughter and I were driving in our VW van, and we pulled over, and I was going to buy her shoes, and she said to me, ‘No mommy, don’t get me the shoes. Let’s get the book,’ ” she said. “And that’s how we read it.”

“We read it all the way home in the car,” Goldberg continued, adding: “I wrote Alice and said I’d play dirt on the floor. I had been invited to New York to do my other one-person show, and she had written to me at my mom’s house and said, ‘I already told people about you, I live in Berkley where you live, I’ve seen you.’ That’s how it happened.”

Whoopi Goldberg The Color Purple - 1985


Whoopi Goldberg in “The Color Purple,” 1985.

Golberg and Fishburne then reflected on what it was like to shoot the film, which takes place in rural Georgia during the early 1900s.

“It was hot, we were in North Carolina. Lot of bugs” Fishburg said, as Goldberg exclaimed that there were “A LOT” of the animals amid filming.

“It was a miraculous time, because it was one of the first occasions I remember ever being in a film where the three leads of the film were Black women,” Fishburne added.

“That was a big deal,” continued The Amateur star.

Akosua Busia, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rae Dawn Chong on the set of "The Color Purple".


Akosua Busia, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rae Dawn Chong on the set of “The Color Purple”.

The Color Purple was brought to the big screen again in 2023, with a remake starring Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraj P. Henson and Colman Domingo. Goldberg makes a cameo in the feature, playing a midwife.

A Broadway adaption of the award-winning story was also brought to the stage from 2005 to 2008. It was later revived in 2015, starring Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson.

The View airs weekdays (11 a.m. EST) on ABC.