Fantasia Declares ‘I Fell, but I’m Up!’ as Oprah Calls Her ‘Color Purple’ Role a ‘Triumph in Action’
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Fantasia Barrino spoke about the need to persevere through adversity at Variety‘s Power of Women Presented by Lifetime.
“I’ve been through some things I haven’t been afraid to share,” Barrino said in her speech at the event on Thursday. “Sometimes we don’t want to share what we go through, but I knew that my tests were part of my testimony, and I knew that my testimony would help a lot of people.”
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Barrino also spoke about her role in the upcoming musical film adaptation of “The Color Purple,” in which she will portray Celie, a role she previously played on Broadway.
“I want to thank Celie,” she said. “I didn’t want to play this role again, because I knew this role would bring up some certain things in my life that I thought I was over, but I think I just suppressed. So when they called me I said ‘I cannot do it. I’m married. I’m happy. No thanks.’ But I had to for every young lady that has been through some of the things that I’ve been through. Not even the young ladies, there are some ladies that are a lot older than me that say, ‘Thank you for sharing your story.'”
Barrino concluded on a message of hope, dedicating her award to Celie, her own daughter, and “every young lady that’s going to go through some things. But it does not matter what you go through, baby. We fall down but we get back up. You Google me. I fell but I got back up!”
In introducing Barrino, Oprah Winfrey said “Several years ago, as a producer, I watched Fantasia embody the character of Celie on the Broadway stage, and I thought, well, what could top that? And this year, I saw what could top that. To watch Fantasia re-embody, re-imagine and re-invent Celie for our film was to actually witness triumph in action.”
“The Color Purple” star opened up about her own fight to live again after her 2010 overdose in her Power of Women cover story, telling Variety how it was through the help of her nurse that she was able to come out on the other side with a new perspective.
While she recovered in the hospital, Barrino was visited by a nurse who threw several copies of magazines with her face on the cover into her lap. “‘You see that young lady,” the nurse told her. “She’s strong. She’s a blessing.” Then she gave her a command: “Don’t you come back in here no more. You fight.”
“I left that hospital and said, ‘I’ll never do that again, because I have purpose,’” Barrino recalled. “I’m going to speak into every young person’s life and tell them, ‘Don’t you dare give up.’”
Years later, Barrino would be offered the chance to do just that when she married her husband, Kendall Taylor. In 2021, Taylor (who, as a young adult, battled troubles as a convicted felon on assault and weapons charges) founded Salute 1st, an organization devised to help young men develop leadership skills as a way to avoid going down the same path.
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