Back in 1982, Alice Walker published her genius novel "The Color Purple." That book would make her the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The same work would go on to change the nation by enlightening the minds and opening the hearts of millions of people who had no understanding of the beauty and horrors that came with Black life in Georgia during the 1900s, while simultaneously allowing those who knew that life very well, and what it took to survive during those times, to be seen. Steven Spielberg's acclaimed 1985 film adaptation starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover — a box office hit that garnered 11 Academy Award nominations — has become an American classic.

And now the story has been brought to stage and screen by a new generation of performers. Danielle Brooks, who plays Sofia in the new musical film adaptation, opened up about her personal connection to Walker's creation — and about the power of community, representation and telling the complete American story — on a recent episode of "Salon Talks."

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Most people know Brooks, a Grammy Award-winning, Tony-nominated actor from her days of playing Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson on Netflix’s "Orange Is the New Black" and Leota Adebayo on the HBO superhero series "Peacemaker." Brooks made her Broadway debut in 2015 as Sofia in the revival of the 2005 musical adaptation of "The Color Purple," and she reprises her role in the star-studded 2023 film adaptation directed by Blitz Bazawule, for which she has already been honored with nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

You can watch my "Salon Talks" episode with Danielle Brooks here or read a Q&A of our conversation below, which we filmed before the Golden Globes were awarded and SAG nominations were announced, to learn more about the day Oprah Winfrey delivered the role of Sofia to her, how her days at Juilliard prepared her for this moment and to see if her daughter is bit by the acting bug like her mother.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Congratulations on your [Golden Globe] nomination and all of the excitement around the film. How do you feel right now?

Oh my gosh, I am on cloud nine. I can't stop smiling. My cheeks hurt too much. Just from smiling.

That’s a good problem to have.

Good problems. It's been an exciting few months — years, really, even from getting to start this project of “Color Purple” and film it, to now. It's been quite an extraordinary moment for me.

I saw that beautiful video of your daughter and her reaction to seeing you in the trailer of the film. So my question is — because I have a three-year-old — how did you get her to pay attention in the movies?

Well, she didn't quite pay attention. Luckily, trailers come early in movie theaters. To be honest, if that trailer would've came in an hour and a half, she would not have probably caught me because little baby girl would not stop talking during “The Little Mermaid.”

"I was not going to let any fear creep into this moment because I knew this moment was bigger than myself, and I had a responsibility to everyone, my family, myself, the ancestors, my child, Oprah."

But it was amazing to see her reaction of seeing her mommy on a big screen, and her saying, "Mommy, look. It's you. It's you." My heart was so full because representation truly does matter, and that's what it was for me. When I first saw “The Color Purple” on Broadway when I was 15, my dad took me, and seeing people that looked like me, I was able to find my purpose. Even though she's four, I'm just excited for her and her journey to discovering what she wants to do by seeing people that look like her doing that thing.

Would she be acting like mom? You started out pretty young.

Yeah. I started out young, doing church plays here and there when I was six years old, and then my mom found a lot of arts programs for me to be a part of. It's funny because I was lucky enough to do a screening for my hometown in........

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