Thandie Newton and Tessa Thompson take Uinterview user questions about their new Tyler Perry movie, “For Colored Girls.”

Kimberly Elise and Thandie Newton stopped by BlackTree TV to discuss their new film For Colored Girls.

Despite the serious, heavy themes in Tyler Perry’s upcoming movie “For Colored Girls,” which is based on playwright Ntozake Shange’s 1974 Broadway hit “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” the film’s stars say the underlying message is not one of heartbreak, but one of hope and support.

“[It's about] basic human love and regard for one another,” Kimberly Elise said.

The film follows the lives of nine black women living in and around Harlem, all of whom are confronted with a range of crises, from love, abandonment and rape to infidelity and abortion.

“It’s so exhilarating to be able to say, ‘Yes, that’s how it is. They’re uncovering the truth.’ Life isn’t fuzzy and warm all the time,” Thandie Newton said. “Unless you don’t challenge yourself as a human being, you don’t really live.”

“And there’s a great statement on sisterhood and community,” Elise added. “I think you do leave the film feeling like, ‘I am woman, I can do this, I can stand on top of this pain and especially with my sisters around me,’ and what we bring to each other and what I bring to her,” she said, motioning to Newton. “Even in the making of the film, we had to bring it for each other, and so I think you leave the film feeling that.”

“Also just the basic, the fundamental truth that you are not alone,” Newton said. “Whatever you have experienced, however challenging and difficult, you are not alone.”

“For Colored Girls,” which opened Friday (November 5), also stars Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Janet Jackson, Tessa Thompson and Whoopi Goldberg.

Reggie Ponder, The ReelCritic, interviews Thandie Newton about Tyler Perry’s new film For Colored Girls

ReelzChannel Spotlight – Toronto International Film Festival

A look at some of the darker films that premiered at the Midnight Madness portion of the festival. (The movie coverage for “Vanishing on 7th Street” begins at 1:10.)