Danielle Brooks shares her experience of needing physical therapy following the shooting of ‘The Color Purple.’
The actress recently returned to her role in the cinematic adaptation. She confessed that shooting the scene depicting Sofia’s arrest had a significant impact on her. In the movie, Sofia is assaulted and detained by a group of men because she refused to work for a racist homeowner.
“I ended up having to do that scene over the course of two days for multiple hours a day, and it pulled my back out,” Brooks said. “Swinging back and forth trying to get the mob off of me. Of course, we have an incredible stage combat leader and his crew were fabulous. But doing it over and over, that really took me out. I had to do physical therapy and go to the chiropractor for a few weeks to recover while still having to work.”
Brooks clarified that the arrest scene is shown in the film as opposed to the Broadway adaptation, where the physical violence is not portrayed.
“When we did the mob scene on Broadway, you don’t even see it. You just see me come down center stage and fall to my knees. And then you’ll see I lift my head up and now I’ve transformed into a new version, a downtrodden, spirit-stolen Sofia. Which I can sustain for a year,” she said. “But it’s much different doing [it for real]. And having 10 to 15 guys surrounding you and you wanting to put everything in it because you want it to make sense from every angle, to not feel like you phoned it in.”
While the scene was challenging for Brooks, she says she found the overall experience to be incredibly positive and a testament to the beauty of the project.
