Danielle Brooks says 'The Color Purple' arrest scene 'took a toll' on her: 'I had to do physical therapy and go to the chiropractor'
- Danielle Brooks says she had to have physical therapy because of a scene in "The Color Purple."
- The demanding moment sees Brooks' character mobbed and arrested by a group of men.
Danielle Brooks said she had to see a chiropractor and undergo physical therapy after shooting a difficult scene in "The Color Purple."
The "Orange is the New Black" and "Peacemaker" star plays Sofia in Blitz Bazawule's musical adaptation of Alice Walker's book of the same name.
At one point, strong-willed Sofia is arrested when she defies a racist housewife because she doesn't want to work as the woman's maid. In a harrowing moment, Sofia is attacked by a mob and arrested, before being thrown in jail.
Brooks spoke to IndieWire about shooting the demanding scene, saying that filming the attack "really took a toll."
She said: "I ended up having to do that scene over the course of two days for multiple hours a day, and it pulled my back out. Swinging back and forth trying to get the mob off of me."
The star, who also played Sofia in the Broadway musical version of "The Color Purple" that the film is based on, said that the exhausting nature of the scene left her needing physical therapy.
"Of course, we have an incredible stage combat leader and his crew were fabulous, but doing it over and over," she said. "That really took me out, where I had to do physical therapy and go to the chiropractor for a few weeks to recover while still having to work."
Brooks noted that the scene plays out differently in the stage version, in which Sofia's attack is implied.
"You just see me come down center stage and fall to my knees, and then you'll see I lift my head up and now I've transformed into a new version, a downtrodden, spirit-stolen Sofia," Brooks said.
"It's much different" in the movie, she added.
"Having 10 to 15 guys surrounding you and you wanting to put everything in it because you want it to make sense from every angle, to not feel like you phoned it in," she said.