Actress fired from 'The Color Purple' claims she would’ve refused role if she knew character was gay

A U.K. actress who was fired from the lead role in The Color Purple for past alleged homophobic remarks on social media claims she did not realize the character she was due to portray was a lesbian and would have refused to take on the role if she did.

An employment tribunal heard Seyi Oomba was due to play the lead character, Celie, in The Color Purple at Leicester’s Curve Theatre in 2019. But she was later dismissed over anti-LGBT+ comments she made on Facebook in 2014.

In response to the legalization of same-sex marriages in the United Kingdom, Omooba posted on Facebook: “I do not believe you can be born gay, and I don’t believe homosexuality is right, though the law of this land has made it legal it doesn’t make it right.”

Once this and other anti-gay social media postings were discovered, she was fired from the production.

Omooba is suing the Leicester Theatre Trust and her agents claiming religious discrimination and breach of contract.

She is being represented by the legal arm of Christian Concern, an organization co-founded by her father. The group said the case will “expose the mechanisms of censorship at the heart of the theatre industry”, adding that “any dissenting views against LGBT+ ideology, especially Christian beliefs, are currently incompatible with a theatrical career”. 

Her lawyers say she did not know Celie was a lesbian, that the character’s sexuality was ambiguous, and Omooba was not explicitly told she would have to play a gay role. “It is in no way obvious and was never made clear to the claimant that she was expected to play a lesbian character,” Pavel Stoilov, Omooba’s representative, said. “She was never asked explicitly to play this character as a lesbian.”

Apparently, Omooba was basing this thought on the interpretation of Celie in the 1985 Steven Spielberg film. It should be mentioned that Spielberg has publicly expressed regret over the way he softened Celie’s sexuality and that another director would have done a better job at portraying it.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that Omooba seems to have done very little research into the character, Celie is a lesbian. The story centers on her as a poor, young, abused African-American woman in the southern US in the 1930s. As the story progresses, Celie develops a close sexual relationship with a female blues and jazz singer Shug. In the film, Celie and Shug only share one kiss.

According to reports, Tom Coghlin QC, representing the Leicester Theatre Trust, said Omooda’s stance on homosexuality constituted a “repudiatory breach of contract” and her dismissal was therefore not “unwanted conduct”.

He said the musical is not the film, “They are different works with a common source, which is the novel.” Coghlin said Omooba “didn’t check” with the director if Celie would be interpreted in the “usually understood way, which was as a gay character”.

“The role she complains about being dismissed from is one that she would have refused to play in any event,” Coghlin told the tribunal. “Her choice was to resign or be dismissed, and she chose to be dismissed.”