PORT ARTHUR, Texas — A Memorial High School graduate was cast in the new musical movie, The Color Purple.
Destiny Mosely was in the right place at the right time when she met a divine opportunity.
"My cousin just so happened to be in Mississippi. And somebody just so happened to be on campus. And was like 'Hey they're casting for The Color Purple. Do you know anybody that would be interested?'," Mosely said.
Mosely, a Port Arthur native, leaped into action. Roughly 30 minutes after submitting a headshot and a monologue she got the call telling her she had been cast.
"I was like oh my goodness…like okay…it's go time," she said.
She boarded a flight from Houston to Atlanta the next morning to begin shooting the musical.
Her family and friends were just as excited as she was.
"She was like what?! And she was like 'Wait are you going to be Shug Avery?!' I said now hold on wait I ain't no Shug Avery! I said now look you're going to have to look for me with some binoculars but that's okay! I'm still there!" Mosely said.
She had been cast as an extra in the Oprah Winfrey produced film.
Mosely is on screen three times. Once as one of the townspeople walking across the street and waving in the very beginning, then dancing behind Shug Avery's car as she rolls into town and finally in the 1950s scene waving and walking again.
Walking down the hallways of her old high school, Mosley is aware of just how far she's come.
"This is literally my home...I can come back and make sure that I deliver back to my school and give back to my community and where I started," she told 12News.
She is an inspiration to other Southeast Texas actors.
"I see myself because I see another black woman who wants to make it in this industry," said Starr Lee-Alvarez.
The film is an important piece of cinema history to Alvarez.
"The Color Purple is a big significant statement of how women were treated at that time and even the amount of love that was between people. It was a lot of sisterhood," Alvarez said.