Fantasia, Oprah, Sheryl Lee Ralph, And More Shine At ELLE’s 2023 Women In Hollywood Celebration

Mya Abraham
·2 min read
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ELLE’s 2023 Women In Hollywood Celebration was nothing short of a star-studded affair.

Hollywood’s elite like Nicole Ari Parker, Oprah, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Colman Domingo came out in their best opulent looks to salute this year’s honorees—which included Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, and Jennifer Lopez.

When speaking on the honor in this year’s issue, Lopez declared, “Women are the story” as Barrino affirmed, “I am the award. I am the trophy.” Both women plus Brooks and Henson were said to be “changing the face of the film industry—literally, by becoming the stars that they desperately wanted to see onscreen,” per ELLE.

The Orange Is The New Black alum noted, “That’s what I signed up for as an actor—to be a reflection of the world that I actually live in, to represent the person who doesn’t feel she has a voice and who isn’t seen, even to represent myself.”

With Barrino, Brooks, and Henson all starring in the musical remake of The Color Purple, each feels this moment in their career represents something different and special. For the American Idol winner, she says this is her “second chance.” Twenty years after her powerful win and a series of devastating losses, her resurgence is even more magical because of how her life mirrored that of her onscreen character, Celie.

“This Tasia is different. It feels like Idol all over again, except that I’m a woman and I get it,” she exclaimed.

For Brooks, she’s basking in her full circle moment and is proud to be able to represent dark-skinned, curvy women in such an impactful way. “I feel like I became the person that I wanted to see onscreen, not the person who was playing the mammy or the best friend all the time. Within my career, I’ve been able to really break open some boxes and show that women who look like me are capable of playing way more roles than what we typically are cast as,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Henson is delighted to be in a space where she can dream bigger than she imagined. Of her pivot into producing and such, the Golden Globe winner shared, “There will always be a project that touches me, [but] I don’t want acting to be the way I make money. I want to make that shift, and I want it to happen before 60, because I have so much of the world that I want to see.”

Here’s your official look into this year’s Women In Hollywood celebration below.

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