Why ‘The Color Purple’ has been a source of Black healing — and controversy

“The Color Purple” is not a remake, producer Scott Sanders insists.

It’s a fresh reimagining of Alice Walker’s novel and the celebrated 1985 film — and the star-studded cast wants the new movie, now a musical, to heal audiences as much as it healed them in the process of making it.

Fantasia Barrino, who stars as the adult Celie, revealed earlier this month that she decided to pause the trauma-related therapy she was undergoing so she could give all of herself to the film’s complex main character.

“I have to give young Fantasia to Celie this go-round,” Barrino said, recalling a conversation with her therapist. Barrino has played Celie on stage numerous times, including on Broadway from 2007 to 2008, but this portrayal, she said, is different. “This time around, playing her and living with her … she was my life coach,” Barrino said of Celie. “She was my therapist and I was allowed to heal.”