‘Color Purple’: Taraji P. Henson on Advice She Gave Fantasia & Danielle Brooks (Exclusive)

“The Color Purple” stars Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino Taylor and Danielle Brooks sat down with “Extra’s” Melvin Robert to dish on the new musical movie.

The talented trio spoke about how they all had to audition for the film, and Fantasia and Danielle also shared some of the advice they got from Taraji.

Henson explained, “We all had to go and audition and I’m like, ‘I’m Academy Award-nominated. What do you mean?’ But I had to check my ego.”

Danielle added, “We all had to check our ego… It was a six-month process that I’m so grateful for.”

Once cameras rolled, the ladies became thick as thieves, a true sisterhood was born.

Taraji said, “We had a lot of fun,” and Fantasia added, “We did, we had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of heavy days, too, but we were there to hold each other up. We had some hiccups. People kept catching COVID.”

Danielle noted, “We were tired.”

Fantasia continued, “But to see it the other night, I thought, ‘That’s what we had to go through to get there.’”

Taraji said it was like, “We were… birthing a baby,” adding, “It’s not easy, it’s painful.”

Taraji stepped up like a big sister should to prevent Fantasia and Danielle from making some of the same mistakes she did.

Fantasia said, “Thank you for the gems… She was telling us what not to do.”

Danielle said, “She would be telling us, ‘Go get that money, honey.’”

Henson said, “They’re talented, so I wasn't really concerned about what they were doing on the set. For me, it was about contracts... what your people are doing... Don’t make the mistakes I made. I was more interested in giving them those gems because… the talent they got.”

She went on to tell her co-stars, “Well, ladies, I just want to congratulate you on your first classic and it will be one of many and I couldn’t imagine going through this with anybody else.”

Brooks said, “Same,” and Barrino insisted, “It is too early to cry.”

Taraji said, “I know, but I have to say this… this really has been an amazing experience.”