We Asked Fantasia About ‘Take Your Time, Tasia’

Photo: Arturo Holmes/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Before The Color Purple (out December 25) committed Fantasia Barrino’s performance as Celie to film, if you wanted to hear her rendition of the musical’s showstopper “I’m Here,” you had to turn to YouTube bootlegs of her stint on Broadway. One of those videos, capturing her closing-night performance of the number, has taken on a life of its own thanks to the commentary throughout from the audience member filming — most famously their repeated use of the phrase “Take your time, Tasia!”

At a screening hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, we asked Barrino about that emotional final performance and if she was at all familiar with the now iconic “Take your time, Tasia!” line. “No! What is it?” she asked, before recalling why she needed to take her time. “Ah, that was my last night … When you saw me taking those pauses, it was because I needed it. I was trying to sing my way through, and Celie’s [way through]. It felt like I was carrying two crosses, mine and hers. That’s heavy. So when they called me to play it again, I was like, ‘I’m not sure, you guys.’” She added that she’s so glad she ultimately did. “Celie’s not the same woman that I remember on Broadway.”

Also taking its time was Barrino’s plane to New York, where she was scheduled to do press all this week. After canceled flights left her stranded in Los Angeles, a call from “Queen Oprah” saved the day. “She was congratulating me on the [Golden Globe] nomination, and I was like, ‘Oh, I miss you guys so much, I’m not in New York.’ And she’s like, ‘Wait, what?’” After explaining the situation, Winfrey sprung into action. “She says, ‘Give me a second.’” And sure enough, by the end of that same day, Barrino was in New York. And how was Oprah’s plane? “It was good!”