Introducing Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, ‘The Color Purple’s’ Young Celie: ‘This Is Work I Was Meant to Do’
variety.comAngelique Jackson Turning 30 is always a memorable moment, but “The Color Purple” actor Phylicia Pearl Mpasi rang in her third decade with a birthday serenade from Oprah Winfrey.
Coincidentally, Mpasi’s birthday (November 16) fell on another special occasion: the first screening of the musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” The atmosphere was charged with anticipation since this was the debut of the film before critics and press, but the mood backstage was particularly jovial since it was the first time the cast — Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P.
Henson, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey and Mpasi, as well as Winfrey, producer Scott Sanders and director Blitz Bazawule — had assembled since wrapping production in 2022.
But there was an extra element of emotion for Mpasi, since “The Color Purple” marks her feature film debut. On stage at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, Mpasi, an alum of “The Lion King” on Broadway, described her journey to book the role of Young Celie — an abused and uneducated Southern Black woman at the turn of the 20th century, who begins Alice Walker’s seminal novel as a teenager, pregnant with her second child by the man who raised her.
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