Oprah Winfrey Says It Was a 'Miracle' She Got Role in 1985's “Color Purple”: 'I'd Never Been to a Movie Set' (Exclusive)

The multi-hyphenate is this week's PEOPLE cover star, opening up about her 1985 film debut and the new musical version she co-produced

The Color Purple has been a full-circle experience for Oprah Winfrey.

The multihyphenate star was nominated for an Oscar for her breakout film role as Sofia in the 1985 film. Now, nearly four decades later, she's gearing up to release the musical version she co-produced, based on the Broadway show.

Landing the part was something out of a dream, as Winfrey, 69, tells PEOPLE for this week's cover story, "I'd never been to a movie set."

"Doing the [original] film was the most important thing that had ever happened to me and continues to be a central theme in my life," she says.

Winfrey adds, "It's as big a miracle as my whole life has been, because I didn’t know one single soul in the business."

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Related: Oprah Winfrey on Impact of The Color Purple and New Movie Adaptation: 'The Power of a Story Well Told’

Winfrey says 1985's The Color Purple — which was nominated for 11 total Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Whoopi Goldberg — "is the reason I ended up owning my own show, why I learned to surrender, do the hardest work and then let that work go."

"The Color Purple is why I created the culture at my company Harpo that I did, because I had seen at Steven Spielberg’s Amblin that you can own your own studio [and] make a family of your work," she continues. "That movie was a spiritual grounding for me."

Spielberg, 76, directed the original film, based on author Alice Walker's 1982 novel of the same name, and he serves as a producer on the movie musical adaptation, alongside Winfrey.

The synopsis for 2023's Color Purple teases a "musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about the lifelong struggles of an African-American woman living in the South during the early 1900s."

The film is a "bold new take on the beloved classic" about "the extraordinary sisterhood of three women who share one unbreakable bond," according to the synopsis.

For more on Oprah Winfrey, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Related: Oprah Winfrey Reigns Supreme in Purple While Promoting The Color Purple: See All Her Looks

Marcus Gardley wrote the script based on the novel and the musical, which featured a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

The movie stars Fantasia Barrino as Celie in her feature film debut among a star-studded cast that includes Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr., Corey Hawkins, David Alan Grier, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, H.E.R., Ciara, Jon Batiste and Deon Cole.

Winfrey calls the role of Sofia, played in the new film by Brooks, 34, the "embodiment of self-empowerment" and says she feels "blessed" to show it to a new generation.

Asked where she goes from here, she says, "Maya Angelou wrote a poem for me called 'Continue' ... One of the most important lines is, 'My wish for you is that you continue to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.' And that is what I intend to do."

The Color Purple is in theaters Christmas Day.

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