Oprah Winfrey Shares Why She Chose Not to Appear in New Color Purple Movie

This story contains spoilers for The Color Purple, which is now playing in theaters.

Fans of the original The Color Purple were no doubt delighted to see Whoopi Goldberg make a surprise cameo in the new musical reimagining. So why didn't Goldberg's costar in the original, Oprah Winfrey, also have a cameo?

The media mogul, 69, and Goldberg, 68, played Sofia and Celie, respectively, in Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie, an adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel.

Winfrey, who produced the new film, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that she did consider making an appearance in it.

"[A cameo] would’ve been good in the church scene, but I thought it would also be distracting when Sofia is getting married that if the old original Sofia was just one of the people in the church," Winfrey told the outlet. "And then they were shooting that in the middle of Georgia when COVID was [spreading] like, ‘OK, well I ain’t sitting in that church all day anyway.' "

“And also I just think it’s more special that it’s just Whoopi," she added of Goldberg's cameo. Goldberg appears early in the film as a midwife who helps a young Celie give birth.

The movie's screenwriter Marcus Gardley recently told The Los Angeles Times that he chose to create a midwife character for Goldberg to portray in order to show a passing of the torch from the Spielberg original to the new production, which adapts the Broadway stage show for the big screen. Both Brooks, 34, and Barrino, 39, appeared as their movie characters on Broadway years before taking on the new film.

“Symbolically, that felt like the perfect part because she’s the one to not only encourage her during the birth, but it’s like she herself gave birth to the role and now we see her passing it down,” Gardley told the outlet.

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Even though Winfrey does not appear in the new movie, she has been one of The Color Purple's most visible stars on its press tour. She recently told PEOPLE that the original movie proved "the most important thing that had ever happened to me and continues to be a central theme in my life,"

"It's as big a miracle as my whole life has been, because I didn’t know one single soul in the business," Winfrey said. Though she had worked in television news for years before taking the role, The Color Purple marked Winfrey's first feature film credit — and her first-ever experience on a film set.

The Color Purple is in theaters now.