Fantasia was Robbed!

I first saw Fantasia's display of acting talent back when she sang "I'm Here" from The Color Purple at the 2007 Tony Awards. I thought she was so good, and I don't often notice such good acting and singing together from musicals that aren't of much interest to me. She was remarkable. Fast forward to very recently, and though I had only wanted to see the orginal, non-musical The Color Purple for a while because it is known as a classic, it wasn't until a friend told me how much they loved the film that I finally checked it out. It was a wonderful, amazing film, where Whoopi and Oprah really shone in fantastic performances. So, when the musical film came out, I was thinking I'd check it out. I didn't hear much about it when it came out, and the little I heard from some people was that it was bad, so I expected it to be bad, but I finally checked it out and...it was a wonderful movie in its own right! Sure, the songs kinda stop the story, and in my opinion, don't add much. But the way they did the story and acting, plus, sure, great singing, it was beautiful! Sofia's actress was great, don't get me wrong, she deserves her Oscar nom. But I thought Fantasia as Celie was one of the best, most touching peformances I have ever seen. When she finds out her sister was still alive, and writing her, it made tears well up in my eyes. When she found out her real father and mother loved her and gave her that store, I also became so emotional tears almost came again. I truly expected an Oscar win for her, or at least a nomination! Believe me, I don't cry that easily at stuff, and her performance moved me. She was robbed. Her snub is crime. So, I was wondering how everyone else felt.

Updated On: 2/7/24 at 07:53 PM

S**t, gotta run. My Uber just got here.

First world problem.

The Academy Awards are worthless and most certainly not a validation of good performances. Fantasia is a singer first and hasn't done much in the way of acting yet she managed to turn in a good performance that captured the character out of the book. The fact that someone who hasn't done much acting good pull off the dinner scene so well was impressive itself.

seaweedjstubbs said: "Fantasia was indeed fantastic in the film. But if anyone robbed her of an Oscar nomination, it was the film itself. I don’t know whose decision it was to cut Celie and Shug’s fight that precedes “I’m Here” in the stage musical, but it was the worst decision they could’ve made for the movie. It robs “I’m Here” of all its power. The direction of the song didn’t do Fantasia any favors either. They just didn’t stick the landing with that song, and let’s be honest, it’s that song that got LaChanze and Cynthia Erivo their Tonys. If they’d bungled “And I Am Telling You” in the DREAMGIRLS film the way they screwed up “I’m Here,” Jennifer Hudson wouldn’t have an Oscar. Sadly for Fantasia, she was sabotaged by shoddy storytelling and a director who maybe wasn’t the right choice for this film."

This. I really appreciated that they spent a lot of the film on Celie and Nettie’s sisterhood, it was beautiful. But to be honest, even though they leaned further into the queerness during What About Love, I wish they’d told more of Celie and Shug’s story.

It would have been nice to see that storyline also flourish. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I think the casting was top notch. The script was lacking though, and I think the missing link was the Celie/Shug relationship. Celie receiving two different kinds of love from Shug and Nettie, two women, would have been the clincher to really make this version of the story pop.

I don’t think she was robbed.
miscast maybe but not robbed

she’s way too clean, perky, And a bit zaftig for this role. Funny, It felt like she was perfect on stage

and the choreography was very cringe worthy



Everyone in the cast felt like two points down from the Spielberg movie.

seaweedjstubbs said: "Fantasia was indeed fantastic in the film. But if anyone robbed her of an Oscar nomination, it was the film itself. I don’t know whose decision it was to cut Celie and Shug’s fight that precedes “I’m Here” in the stage musical, but it was the worst decision they could’ve made for the movie. It robs “I’m Here” of all its power. The direction of the song didn’t do Fantasia any favors either. They just didn’t stick the landing with that song, and let’s be honest, it’s that song that got LaChanze and Cynthia Erivo their Tonys. If they’d bungled “And I Am Telling You” in the DREAMGIRLS film the way they screwed up “I’m Here,” Jennifer Hudson wouldn’t have an Oscar. Sadly for Fantasia, she was sabotaged by shoddy storytelling and a director who maybe wasn’t the right choice for this film."

I have not seen the musical, but I do not remember a fight before "I'm Here", which was the last song sung by Celie before the Easter dinner scene, correct? Is that fight in the original film? I should give that a re-watch! Also the musical!

Celie is zaftig as a child in the original film, so I thought her being full-figured as an adult just made sense?

At least the consensus here seems to be "Yeah, Fantasia did pretty good to a degree". I just thought it was Oscar worthy.