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It’s been a tough year for Fantasia Barrino. The Grammy-nominated singer and budding actress brought a new relevance to the Broadway adaptation of The Color Purple with her turn as the tormented Celie, but a cyst on her vocal chords forced her to miss dozens of shows. Fortunately, being handpicked by Oprah to reprise the role for the new film adaptation has helped to revive her passion for performing.
Rolling out caught up with Fantasia (who’s set to release a new album this year) backstage at the Chicago Gospel Music Festival. –gavin philip godfrey
You’ve said you had a personal relationship with Celie, what did you mean?
… In order for me to play the role I had to live her life, which was hard in the beginning because I had never done a play, I had never seen a play. After the show was over I would call my mother and I would say, ‘Mother, I don’t know how to come out of the role — I can’t find Fantasia.’
You almost sound happy about that.
When I left off that stage, I went through a lot of things in ’08 — went through a surgery, went through a lot of people trying to come after everything I worked hard for. If it had not been for Celie, I probably would have [thrown] in the towel [on my career], but I took so many things away from that play. That song that she sings at the end — ‘I’m Here’ — constantly plays in my head because it’s what keeps me going.
Tell us about your new project.
I’m doing a documentary about my life for VH-1.You have a lot of people who tend to judge or open up their mouths when they really don’t know the whole story, so I’m going to show people … what Fantasia does when the microphone goes off and the lights go out.
