I refused to get 'buck naked' on screen, says Oprah

By Baz Bamigboye

PUBLISHED: 17:36 EST, 14 November 2013 | UPDATED: 18:43 EST, 14 November 2013

Oprah Winfrey, one of the most powerful women in the world, said she would not be stripping off her lingerie to get 'buck naked' on screen

Oprah Winfrey, one of the most powerful women in the world, said she would not be stripping off her lingerie to get 'buck naked' on screen

Oprah Winfrey, one of the most powerful women in the world, declared she would not be stripping off her lingerie to get ‘buck naked’ on screen.

The billionaire TV tsarina and occasional actress was speaking to me about her role in director Lee Daniels’s movie The Butler, in which she plays Gloria, wife of a White House butler played by Forest Whitaker. 

Gloria becomes bored with her middle-class life while her husband’s off looking after ‘that other family in the White House’.

Oprah said that after a while Gloria starts to drink, and fools around with a neighbour, played by Terrence Howard.

She said Daniels would have preferred her to go much further during her scenes with Howard. ‘You know, he would have had me buck naked on that sofa if I had let him!’

She added that she and Daniels argued ferociously about how Gloria would behave. ‘He did more screaming than I did — I’m not a screamer,’ she said.

She insisted it would make no sense for Gloria to go to bed with Howard. ‘If she’s going to roll around in bed in the middle of the afternoon,’ she explained, then it would be ‘a lie, a fake thing’.

The infuriating fact about Oprah Winfrey is that she has a day job that takes her away from acting.

It’s 15 years since she did Beloved; and 27 years since The Color Purple.

She provides the heat in The Butler in more ways than one.

Not only does she look terrific, but she nails the character completely: she’s a force of nature on screen.

The movie spans several decades, and I wondered aloud whether America has paid that promissory note to African-Americans that Martin Luther King talked about in his I Have A Dream speech. 

Oprah believes it has. ‘I think that every day, each of us is allowed to be judged by the content of their character,’ she said.

Forest Whittaker and Oprah Winfrey, with director Lee Daniels (right), during a photocall for their new film The Butler, at the Corinthia Hotel in London

Forest Whittaker and Oprah Winfrey, with director Lee Daniels (right), during a photocall for their new film The Butler, at the Corinthia Hotel in London

She also noted how much African-Americans have accomplished since King’s oration. Once upon a time, she said, they had to sit at the back of the bus. ‘Now we could buy the bus.’

Oprah observed that five decades ago: ‘I would not have been allowed to be Oprah Winfrey. “How dare I!” I certainly wouldn’t have been allowed to have owned my own television network,’ she laughed, delighted by her own audacity, her gold bangles jangling.

I risk a joke, asking if she is allowed to buy handbags now — a reference to the infamous episode in Zurich where an assistant in a posh store didn’t let her see an expensive bag, because she didn’t think she could afford it.

‘I don’t think I’m going to have a problem buying a handbag in London,’ she said, matter-of-factly.

And then she hitched up her Donna Karan ensemble, and helped me retrieve my tape recorder, which had been strategically placed next to her Yves St Laurent-shod feet.

Oprah has people at her offices and her various homes to pick up after her, so I was flattered that she could be bothered to do some light lifting for me.

Pure class.

 

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Matilda heads for Hollywood

Smash-hit musical Matilda is to be turned into a film — but we’ll have to wait until 2019 to see it.

Complex contract stipulations dictate that a movie version of the musical of Roald Dahl’s story can’t be released for six years after the opening of the Broadway production. (The New York transfer of the Royal Shakespeare Company show premiered in the spring.)

Matthew Warchus, who directed Matilda, told me that Dennis Kelly, who wrote the book for the show, will be tackling the screenplay in the new year. He will then liaise with composer Tim Minchin to see if any new songs are needed for the film.

Smash-hit musical Matilda is to be turned into a film - but we'll have to wait until 2019 to see it

Smash-hit musical Matilda is to be turned into a film - but we'll have to wait until 2019 to see it

Warchus said there’s plenty of time for Kelly to open out the story of the super-bright schoolgirl with telekinetic powers who’s ignored by her parents and bullied by evil headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

‘It’ll be different from what we did on stage,’ Warchus explained. ‘Matilda’s imagination lends itself very much to film. We can open up her amazing acrobat stories.

And there will be the conundrum of trying to capture the naughtiness and anarchy of the stage version.’

He vowed the film will feature ‘as much misbehaviour’ as possible.

Matilda producer Andre Ptaszynski said the six-year holdback will allow the show to establish itself worldwide. (The musical is still running in the West End — at the Cambridge Theatre — where it has an advance of more than £6 million.)

Similar undertakings were asked of the film iterations of Mamma Mia!, Les Miserables, Evita and many other hit shows.

Meanwhile, Warchus is directing one of the hottest scripts around, Stephen Beresford’s Pride, (see opposite page) about an unlikely alliance during the 1984 miners’ strike between miners’ families and gay and lesbian activists. 

Warchus said he was immediately drawn to the story, based on real events about how the gay group raised funds to help families in a Welsh mining village.

‘It was a story crying out to be told — and it’s very uplifting.’

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Thank you, thank you, thank you

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I had stopped watching Loose Women because of it being so boring. But today the legend Oprah was on it, what a great show today.

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Whew! That was a close call, glad you make the smart choice!

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I'm glad you stuck to your principals - Go Oprah!!!

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What is "buck naked"? I always thought it was "butt naked" as in showing your butt. Either way, I think cinema going audiences are probably pretty happy she isn't going buck OR butt naked.

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Well that's a relief for everyone.

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Thank Christ!

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Well, that's a safe statement seeing how no one wants to see her naked.

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Thanks for sparing us Oprah.

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thank the lord for that

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