Oprah Winfrey Interview (page: 6 / 8) Entertainment Executive	Print Interview

You obviously are in the public eye in a way that most people cannot relate to. How have you adjusted to that? To the fact that when Oprah sneezes, it's usually printed in People magazine, or whatever.

Oprah Winfrey: I don't know about sneezing, but if she eats a piece of bacon! I think I've adjusted pretty well. I think I'm probably one of the most balanced people I know, to live under such a microscope like this. And I think that you have to put it all in perspective and understand who you really are. And who I really am is not some person who is just on television everyday. That is something that I do. I think it's important for people not to look at my life, or anybody else's life, particularly celebrities because I think adoration is unhealthy.

When you look at the list of people that students choose to admire in this country, I think that there are so many people who do such incredible things. Incredible things. Last year I met the guy who split the neutrons in two. And they do things, and you think "My God!" They do things to atoms that you can't even pronounce. And I think, "Well, you know, wouldn't it be wonderful if those kinds of people got publicity? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we paid attention to some of the more humanitarian things that are going on, things that are really of value?" I think just because you can do a video, or you can dance really well, or you can sit on a talk show and you can talk to people, that is not necessarily to be held in the highest of esteem, because that isn't what makes life meaningful. It really is not.

What characteristics do you think are most important for having a fulfilling life?

Oprah Winfrey: I think the most important thing to get ahead falls back to what I truly believe in, and that is the ability to seek truth in your life. That's on all forms. You have to be honest with yourself. You can be pursuing a profession because your parents say it's the best thing. You can be pursuing a profession because you think you will make a lot of money. You can be pursuing a profession because you think you are going to get a lot of attention. None of that will do you any good if you are not being honest with yourself.

Honesty comes from your natural instinct telling you when you are doing something, whether or not this feels right. You feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment and worthiness to the world, in such a way that you know that you are doing the right thing. You don't have to ask anybody. When you are doing the right thing, you don't have to say, "Do you think this is OK?" It works on every level. Whether or not you are going to a party, or choosing a dress, or choosing a friend, if you ever have to say, "Do you think this is OK?" Chances are it is not because that's your instinct trying to get you to ask yourself that question: "Maybe this isn't OK?" From the very first day I did my very first talk show, I knew it. I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt the same thing about acting too. Only I was so terrified that it was a little bit more difficult for me.

What's the turn-on for you in acting?

Oprah Winfrey: For me the turn-on is the ability to express another person's life. If you can internalize, and then manifest externally the essence of another being, that is the ultimate in understanding -- what it takes to take somebody else's life, make it your own, and put it out there. The ultimate. You understand things about people that you just could never imagine. It's almost like getting to live somebody else's life for a while, without having to experience all of the "experience" that comes with creating another life.

Didn't Quincy Jones have an important role in your acting career?

Oprah Winfrey: I would not even say an important role; I would say the role in my acting career.

Quincy Jones discovered me. And it's so interesting to me because when I was working as a television newswoman in Baltimore and really, all I wanted to do was be an actress, but I was doing television, and I felt at the time, I can't quit this job because this is what everybody else wants to do. And if I quit this job, what am I doing to do? And I was going to a speech coach at the time that the station had sent me to, the broadcasting school. They sent everybody to the same woman. And I was telling her, "I really don't want to do this. What I want to do is act." And she says, "My dear, you don't want to act because if you wanted to act, you would be doing it. What you want to be, my dear, is a star. Because if you wanted to act, you'd be waiting tables in New York." And I thought, "Now why am I going to wait tables if I'm already working in TV?" So I said, "Well, what I think is going to happen is I will be discovered because I want it so badly. Somebody is going to have to discover me." And she said, "You just dream. You are a dreamer." So when it happened I called her up. I said, "You will not believe this! I got discovered!" And it really was a discovery. It's like one of those Lana Turner stories, only it wasn't a drug store. He was in his hotel room and saw me on TV. It was unbelievable.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime

I truly believe that thoughts are the greatest vehicle to change power and success in the world. Everything begins with thoughts. The chair that we are sitting in, the room that we are in, all started because somebody thought it. So...

I thought of The Color Purple for myself. I know this is going to sound strange to you. I read the book. I got so many copies of that book. I passed the book around the everybody I knew. If I was on a bus, I'd pass it out to people. And when I heard that there was going to be a movie, I started talking it up for myself. I didn't know Quincy Jones or Steven Spielberg, or how on earth I would get in this movie. I'd never acted in my life. But I felt it so intensely that I had to be a part of that movie. I really do believe that I created it for myself. I wanted it more than anything in the world, and would have done anything to do it, anything to do it.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Passion

It was an incredibly moving performance, especially for your first film.

Oprah Winfrey: Scared to death, too. Scared to death. But yeah, I think I did create it for myself. I talked it up. I made people sick talking about it.

There was a particular, incredibly powerful scene. And I want you to tell us how that came about, and what you went through.

Oprah Winfrey: Well, the most powerful scene in The Color Purple for me was the scene where Sofia walks through the cornfield, and proclaims herself to Celia, defines and proclaims herself. Where she says, "All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my cousins. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my uncles. But I ain't never thought I had to fight my own house." I did that scene in one take because it was the essence, I thought, of my life, and very liberating to live it through Sofia. Because, at the time that I spoke it, I wasn't there yet. Because, what she is saying is "I fought people all my life, and I'm not going to fight in my own house anymore, in my own space anymore. I'm going to have what I deserve." And it's taken me a while to get to where Sofia was. But it was so liberating. It was all, I think, a part of the process of growth for me, to recognize it can be done.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

Oprah Winfrey Interview, Page: 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8