Oprah Winfrey and Drew Barrymore have a couple big things in common. They’re both talk show veterans who can also act. And they’ve both worked for Steven Spielberg. For Barrymore, E.T. was her second film. For Winfrey, The Color Purple was her screen debut. Alas, while Spielberg went above and beyond for young Drew, even making it seem like E.T. was actually a living, breathing extraterrestrial, he was a little harsh to Winfrey, at least on her first day.
“When I did my first film, which was The Color Purple [in] 1985, I had never done a film, been in a film, knew anything about filming but wanted to be in The Color Purple more than anything in my life,” Winfrey recalled while on The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this month, per Decider.
Sadly, things got off to an inauspicious start. For her first scene, Winfrey — who played the strong-willed Sofia, played in the new movie musical version by Danielle Brooks — was supposed to walk into a juke joint and say hello to Whoopi Golberg’s Celie. Winfrey was so new to picture-making that she committed the biggest no-no: She looked directly into the camera, a result of her years shooting broadcast television.
“Steven yells, ‘Cut! Cut! Cut! What are you doing?’” Winfrey rememebred. “[I said], ‘Uh. I was just doing my lines.’ He said, ‘What are you doing looking in the camera?’ I go, ‘I’m not supposed to look in the camera?’ He goes, ‘No! Ms. Celie’s over here!’”
She added, “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I had never been on a movie set.”
That’s right: Oprah Winfrey got yelled at by Steven Spielberg. It all worked out in the end, though. Winfrey went on to score an Oscar nomination for her performance, one of 10 the movie racked up. And then the very next year she started a little program called The Oprah Winfrey Show, which did alright. There doesn’t even appear to be any bad blood between her and Spielberg. After all, they’re both producers on the new musical version that’s outgrossing Aquaman 2.
(Via Decider)