celeb news Oprah: "There was pressure to cast Beyoncé or Rihanna in The Color Purple"

[Hector]

“To be completely honest about it, if you were doing this film for $30 or $40 million, the interest in the cast would be very different. Once the film moved to $90 to $100 million, then everybody wants us to bring Beyoncé,” Oprah said. “‘Can you get Beyoncé or can you get Rihanna?’ So we’re sitting in a room saying, ‘Listen, we love Beyoncé. We love Rihanna, but there are other actors who can do this job.’”

[Saint James]

[QueenofCopyPaste]

Lol

[truthteller]

that would be extra 25million for a guest cameo sis

[KatyPrismSpirit]

beyonce and rihanna can't act

[Dr. Alexander]

Beyonce would’ve made them do her scenes in her backyard 

[Totami Legend]

The Toni Braxton© was right there

[DamianSolo]

I'm happy they didn't go with either, that would have detracted from the story—in my opinion. It would have been much more about Beyoncé than it would have been about the movie. I would like to see her act more again, though, she was really honing her skills. I loved her performance in Cadillac Records.

[EnigmaticAndroid]

Thank God Blitz knew better 

[PrettyHurts]

She would've been great as Shug Avery 

[Devin]

personally im glad they werent casted. there wouldve been too many microaggressions and slick comments.

[305]

Neither can act so thank God for that!

 

[getBusy]

 I stan Rihanna but LET’S BE REAL NOW… 

[Donquizote]

Lol. 

We know that Beyonce doesn't draw people to come to the cinema to watch movie.

Plus, she's a horrible actress

Glad they made the right decision to cast Fantasia.

[Beyonnaise]

Celebrity stunt casting has gotten tired. I can't remember the last time I saw a pop star in something and thought it really elevated the show/movie besides Billie in Swarm (the rest of that show I had mixed feelings on.) It's far more exciting and interesting to see actors I have never heard of before steal the show.

[JonginBey]

People shading Bey and Rih when neither received a phone call at the end of the day.

 

[Rotunda]

4 minutes ago, Donquizote said:

Lol. 

We know that Beyonce doesn't draw people to come to the cinema to watch movie.

Plus, she's a horrible actress

Glad they made the right decision to cast Fantasia.

I know you’re seldom playing with a full deck, but what makes you think Beyoncé and Rihanna were being inquired about for Fantasia’s part? It doesn’t make sense for either of them to play Celie.  

[Velvet Night]

I’m glad that they didn’t cast them for this film. While I understand that celebrity sells, neither Rihanna nor Beyonce would've worked for this film. And tbh, their level of fame would've been a distraction.  Also both of them aren’t great actresses, neither can hold a candle to Taraji in regards to acting. 

[What_A_Mess]

Give other Black actors a chance

[bad guy]

I actually think Beyoncé and RIhanna have been decent in their acting but the issue with music stars moving to acting is it's hard to not see Beyoncé and Rihanna. They are just too huge to be seen as actual characters.

[Beyonnaise]

1 hour ago, bad guy said:

I actually think Beyoncé and RIhanna have been decent in their acting but the issue with music stars moving to acting is it's hard to not see Beyoncé and Rihanna. They are just too huge to be seen as actual characters.

When I saw Don't Worry Darling I was prepared for Harry to be horrible because of the panned reviews of him in it. I didn't think his performance was good but... I feel like I couldn't even really assess it the way I would a normal actor? All I saw was Harry Styles. It was just wildly distracting and completely took me out of the movie because I couldn't even trick my mind to believe that he was the character.

[Thor]

Who was gonna do the acting?

 

[swissman]

2 hours ago, Donquizote said:

Lol. 

We know that Beyonce doesn't draw people to come to the cinema to watch movie.

Plus, she's a horrible actress

Glad they made the right decision to cast Fantasia.

Beyoncé's film resume is actually super impressive in terms of box office gross. Even Obsessed (which was a film she led) set a record for being the highest opening weekend ever at the time for the last weekend of April. Not sure if that still stands but it's no small feat, or else someone else would have done it before, surely.

 

And you could argue that record-setting grosses like that of The Lion King (2019) was due to the IP not the casting, which is true, but still Beyoncé undoubtedly brought thousands upon thousands of fans to the theatre. I know I certainly would never have paid to see the film had Beyoncé not been involved. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by swissman

[swissman]

Anyway, of course in initial discussions when you know you may have the budget there will be people trying to get the biggest names possible to ensure box office success. It's a similar situation to what happened when casting Eliza Doolittle for the My Fair Lady movie, where they didn't want Julie Andrews who originated the role to play her because they were investing so much budget into the production, that they wanted to ensure its star would bring people to the theatres as well.

 

However, in a case like this it's absolutely necessarily that the casting doesn't overshadow the story, and either Beyoncé or Rihanna would be doing that if involved, so whomever suggested this really didn't know what they were talking about because unless the point is that the role is filled by a superstar (like A Star is Born), or unless the role is just so well suited for the superstar (like Deena Jones in Dreamgirls for Beyoncé) it's going to take so much attention away from the rest.

[Lovett]

Beyoncé would've been amazing as Shug. Missed opportunity!