Oprah comes full circle

Ann Curry • Profile

NEW YORK CITY - Oprah Winfrey stops traffic wherever she goes, but few really know what it took to get her to this point, celebrated, as she walked down Broadway just a few months ago escorted by David Letterman after appearing on his show.  This to her coming full circle, to what launched her on the road to success in the first place. Because Oprah believes she is what she is because of a single, inspiring, story.

Oprah Winfrey: For sure, “The Color Purple” changed my life.

She's now producing the musical version of the story on Broadway. And just this week, “The Color Purple” was nominated for 11 Tony awards, including best musical.

It's clear Oprah is taking Broadway by storm.

Oprah's deep ties to “The Color Purple” began in the early 80s. She was a 28-year-old local talk show host working in Baltimore and hiding a dark secret, when one day, she happened upon something in the newspaper:

Winfrey: I read a review of “The Color Purple.”  I had then decided to get up in my pajamas and go the B. Dalton bookstore in the mall. I finished reading it that day.  I went back to the bookstore that evening and got every “Color Purple” book that was in the bookstore. And I passed them out in the newsroom in Baltimore to everybody that I knew and considered a friend. 

The book, by Alice Walker, tells the story of Celie, a poor, black child in the rural South, who  is sexually abused by a family member,  and forced to marry a man who beats her -- the story is told through her letters to God. 

Winfrey: I so related to the story. The inspiration in Celie's life. And you know, the hope.  That I talked about “The Color Purple” as though I were in it. 

Even after she moved to Chicago a few years later to host a local talk show, Orah tried to get everyone to read the book.

Winfrey: I would go to in Chicago every beauty salon.  , I would pass out the books to women under the dryers.  I used to walk home from work with a backpack.  No, serious. And I would pass out the books to anybody. I'd say, have you read “The Color Purple”?

Ann Curry, Dateline anchor: Strangers?

Winfrey: Strangers.  I'm telling you, I was completely obsessed with it. 

Curry: They must have thought you were a bit--

Winfrey: Nuts.

Curry: Touched.

Winfrey: They'd say, “Here she comes. Here she comes, that girl with the ‘Color Purple’ story.” 

Oprah was so obsessed she says because in Celie, she saw herself.

Winfrey: When I first read it, my life felt like Celie's story.

Curry: And that's why the story, this book would not let you go… something about Celie herself seized you. You grew up poor in the South in Mississippi.

Winfrey:   Uh-huh (affirms).  Uh-huh (affirms).  And, abused.

Curry: And, abused.

Winfrey: Sexually abused.  And, so the fact that the first letter is about, "Dear God, I'm 14 years old--" I've been right there.

Curry: “Can you explain to me what's happening to me?”  That's how you felt?

Winfrey: Yeah.

Curry: Did you wonder what was happening to you?

Winfrey:   Well, let me just tell you.  When I read the first line of Alice Walker's book “The Color Purple,” I remember sitting home and I think it took my breath away literally.  You know, people use that phrase.  But, I could not breathe.

So, after reading the first passage, the first letter, I remember closing the book. I thought this was supposed to be a happy interview.  But, I remember closing the book and weeping, because my God, this is my story.  This is my story.  Somebody knows how I felt.  And at the time I read “The Color Purple” I had not told anybody that I'd been sexually abused.  So, it was like Celie knew and Alice Walker knew. Oh, I'm a mess. Ann, stop this.  I'm a mess.  No.  Celie knew and Alice Walker also understood.  And, I had not spoken to anybody about it.

So, to see it written and to have the feelings on the page that were also my feelings was-- the earth moved for me for that, because you say, "Somebody knows.  Somebody else knows what this is like."

Curry: "I'm not alone."

Winfrey: Yeah. 

That moment, Oprah says, was a turning point in her life, allowing her to face what began when she was 9 years old -- abused she says by a cousin then other family members and their friends.  

Years later, Oprah heard that the story that so closely mirrored her own was being made into a movie and she was willing to do anything to be a part of it-- even work as a member of the crew.

Winfrey: So, when I heard that they were doing a movie, I had made a decision that I was going to find a way to get on the`set of that movie. And I started praying for it.  Literally like praying for it.

Praying for what seemed impossible: Oprah didn't know anyone in Hollywood and hadn't acted before. But as chance would have it, on a trip to Chicago, the legendary producer Quincy Jones saw Oprah on TV and he happened to be one of the producers of the movie. 

Quincy Jones, movie producer: When I first saw Oprah in Chicago, on Chicago AM, I didn't know who she was. I said "That's Sophie.  I don't know who it is, but it's Sophie.  If she can act, then it's really Sophie."  

Even though Oprah had never acted before, Quincy Jones arranged for her to audition for the role of Celie's  strong-willed daughter-in-law. It was more than she had even prayed for -- a real part in the movie.

Jones: She tore it up. It came flowing out - just rolling out of her everything. Every mood, kaleidoscopic characterization and everything else just came out.  And it was improvised.

But after the audition, Oprah heard nothing for months, and blamed her weight.

Winfrey: I can't believe that I haven't heard anything. Because how did this happen to me? I'm devastated.  So it's one of those, “Oh, my God, I cannot believe I've come this close.  I go away to a fat farm because I think it's because I'm fat, they hated me.  It's finally caught up to me.  I knew I should have lost weight.  I hate myself.”  The whole thing.

Curry: Hate yourself?

Winfrey: Hate myself.  Hate—

Curry: So you're saying-- you're not just talking “I'm really disappointed.”

Winfrey: No.

Curry: You're saying--

Winfrey: “I hate myself because all this time, I knew the weight was gonna catch up to me. I want to lose fifty pounds in two weeks,” you know.

And I realized at that time that my obsession had gotten the best of me. I'd never wanted anything more than I wanted to be in “The Color Purple.” Never.  And it was life changing for me because I decided I had to let it go. So I go out on the track by myself.  It's cold.  It's raining.  I'm alone running around the track.  And I start asking “God, dear God, just like Celie. Please help me to let it go so that I can move on with my life.”  And I start singing, “I surrender all.  I surrender all.”

But just when Oprah was letting go, someone else was holding on -- on the phone. It was the movie's director, Steven Spielberg. 

Winfrey: He says, “First of all, what are you doing?  I hear you're at a fat farm.”  No, [I say] “it's a health retreat.”  (Laughs) It's a health retreat.  He says, “If you lose a pound, you will possibly lose this part. I'd like to see you in my office tomorrow.”

Oprah Winfrey had won the opportunity of a lifetime -  a part in a major motion picture.  But now feared losing it because, ironically she might not weigh enough.

Winfrey: And I pack my bags and I leave this health retreat.  And I go to the first Dairy Queen on my way home, just in case I lost a pound.  And the reason it was life changing for me is because in that moment of surrender, I realized that when you've done everything that you can do, when you've given it the best that you know how, you surrender it to that which is greater than yourself.

You survive everything.  And when you make peace with that, that is when you open up the space for what is to come to you, to come. And that lesson has changed me forever. “The Color Purple” changed me because it was the first time that I knew what love was.  It really was the first time I knew what love was.  Stop....  (tearing up)

It was on the set of the movie that Oprah began to dream of her future life.

Winfrey:  I'd sit on the set with Alice Walker and Quincy Jones.  I would come to watch them work because I just thought, “This is what love is.” You want to be in the place where you love your work.  You want to feel that every day...

In the story, Celie discovers she can love herself, even after all the bad things that happened to her.   She stops running and faces down her fears.  And she becomes an independent businesswoman.  

In real life, Oprah became a woman who is not afraid to reveal her weaknesses  -- to dream big -- and become one of the most successful businesswomen in America.

Winfrey: Well, it what I learned in “The Color Purple” is this: God can dream of the good dream for you than you can ever dream for yourself.  This is what “The Color Purple” taught me.

At the time she won her dream role, Oprah's TV career was beginning to soar. But with a hit TV show, her bosses pressured her not to take time off to make the film. 

Winfrey: “I will do anything.” I said, “I will sacrifice.  I will never take another vacation for as long as I work here.”

Oprah didn't want someone else controlling her life ever again. So Oprah boldly decided she'd have to become her own boss.

Winfrey: And I learned from that experience, you never want to be in a position again where you can't do what your heart desires for you to do.  And it is because of “The Color Purple” that I made the decision I will now own my own show.  So never again will I ever be told what I can and can not do.  So, it was life changing in, oh--

Curry: So many ways.

Winfrey: So many ways.  So many ways.

Curry: But almost when you say these things--

Winfrey: Yeah. It was the first time I learned what love is.  It's when I learned that I'm not going to let somebody prevent me from doing what I want to do.  This is the voice of Celie. My little hair is rising on my head because that's the first time I ever made that connection.  I have to put my hair down because it's rising on my head.  That is exactly Celie's story.

It’s a story that would net Oprah an academy award nomination and 20 years later, would make a dramatic return to her life. 

Winfrey: And that's why it is, you know, sitting here on this [Broadway] stage, it is a full circle moment for me.

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