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LaChanze, the actress who played the central character Celie Harris Johnson in the 2005 Broadway musical adaptation of The Color Purple, posted yesterday about the new movie musical produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.
LaChanze said she was “thrilled for the movie’s success” and “happy for all involved,” but added, “I do want my royalty fee for the lyrics I added to ‘I’M HERE.
“I am getting a lot of DM’s and posts about why I’ve been left out of the press as the original Celie in the [The Color Purple] (musical),” she wrote. “I am thrilled for the movie’s success! Happy for all involved,” the 62-year-old tweeted Tuesday. “However, I do want my royalty fee for the lyrics I added to ‘I’M HERE.’”
The song is the climax of Celie’s journey — and the musical itself — and a declaration of her personal empowerment. LaChanze won a Tony for her performance, and “I’m Here” was a key part of that.
LaChanze is not officially credited on the song; composers Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray are. But she described her part in it in a recent interview with Time. She said as they workshopped the song, the composers asked her to describe what she was feeling as the character.
“I said, ‘I wanna flirt with somebody, I know I got my sister. She can’t be with me. But she’s still my sister, and I know she loves me and my children,’” the actress recalled telling the composers. “I didn’t put it together in the way they did, but my feelings, my emotions, and my thoughts about what I was experiencing as the actor embodying Celie they put in the song. So I like to say I helped write the song.”
It’s unclear what royalties she would be due given that contribution, but the new film is certainly doing well. It came up big for Warner Bros. – much bigger than expected – on its first day with an estimated $18.15M, an A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 92% positive. Not only was that haul enough for Color Purple to win Christmas Day ahead of Aquaman 2 ($10.6M) and Wonka ($10.3M), but it’s the biggest Christmas Day opening since 2009.
Deadline reached out to the studio and will update this story with any comment received.
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