Former extra remembers filming of 'The Color Purple' in North Carolina
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Mike Dunston
Before the reimagined musical version, 39 years ago Hollywood made movie magic in two Charlotte-area towns.
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WADESBORO, N.C. â Triad native singer and actress Fantasia Barrino Taylor stars as Celie in the newest movie musical version of "The Color Purple."

Her castmate, Danielle Brooks, didnât win but was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress.

Rewind back to 1985, a year or so after Fantasia was born, award-winner Whoopi Goldberg played the main character in the film, Celie: a southern Black woman who triumphed over racism, sexism and abuse in the early 1900s who learned to forgive.

Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover also had major roles.

The movie is set in rural Georgia, but director Steven Spielberg filmed it in North Carolina with set locations in Anson and Union counties.

A North Carolina man named Don Scarborough has fond memories as an extra in the movie.

Heâs the broker and owner of Plank Road Realty in Wadesboro.

The Anson County town was one of the filming sites for the award-winning adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Scarborough, 72, took Spectrum News 1 anchor Mike Dunston on a tour of where Hollywood set up camp for weeks.

"We're at what locals call the Bennet farm, where the house was used for 'The Color Purple,' and this field that rises up to where the top of the tree line is, at the very peak of the hill, that's where Miss Celie's house was. It was three sides, a front and two sides and that's where they shot the scenes of Miss Celie and her house, meeting her children from Africa and their robes flowing in the wind, all that was filmed right here in this field," Scarborough said.

He said the movie producers had to plant rows and rows of "purple cosmos" flowers in the field.

And âThe Color Purple" movie buffs will probably recognize something else on this land.

"It's Mister's house. All the shots where Mister was, this is where he lived. Danny Glover's character in the movie, where a lot of stuff went on. On the back of the house, they made that the front, and Mister's always sitting on the front porch, where Miss Celie's out there shaving him,â he said.

A lot of folks might remember that nail-biting scene.

Also, remember "The Color Purple" was set in the early 1900s, before electric power was widespread.

"In the timeframe of the movie, there was not rural electrification then, so they had to make these poles disappear. So, they wrapped cedar trees around every post. So, if you look at long shots of the movie, you won't see any telephone poles in the background because they're covered with cedar trees," Scarborough said.

But Wadesboro in Anson County wasn't the only filming location. Next, Scarborough took us to Marshville in Union County, about 18 miles west of his hometown.

Scarborough isn't only a real estate broker. Back in 1985 he was 33 and an extra in "The Color Purpleâ movie.

"[I was] in a three-piece wool suit with a scarf, a wool Stetson and wool gloves. It was 85 to 90 degrees that day," Scarborough said.

And he said even though it was summer, for the winter scene, movie producers sprayed water on cotton, to make it look like melting snow.

"This street wasn't a street, no, they had it covered with sawdust to make it look like it wasn't paved, because at that time there weren't paved streets in small towns," he said. "This was the general store, where Ms. Celie and Sofia went in to buy stuff."

Beth Venn runs her gifts and antiques business, Southern Indigo Porch, out of the building that was once a movie set.

"It's big history for a lot of people. We have a lot of visitors come in and come down to Marshville who want to see where 'The Color Purple' was filmed," Venn said.

She doesn't only have customers but fascinated YouTubers and tourists traveling as far from Baltimore coming to her shop to see where movie magic was made.

"I think it can bring a lot of people together to talk about a lot of hard things, and that's important nowadays," Venn said.

Scarborough agrees.

"I think we all learned a lot from it, to be honest with you, and there's plenty of room for human relationships, particularly in small towns in the South. But I think we learned a lot, I think abuse is bad no matter what race a person is and that film exposed a lot of stuff, that maybe the average person might not think's going on in the world among Black and white people," Scarborough said.

As heavy as the movie was at times, Scarborough appreciated the comedic moments that added levity.

And if any directors are watching, Scarborough said Hollywood is welcome back to small-town North Carolina any time.

"We're still here, and we'll let you make movies here if you come here. The doors are open for the movie industry," Scarborough said.