O Magazine interview
Armstrong talks about cycling at 15-years-old in an interview for O Magazine.
Anyone could come for the group rides, so my buddies and I were with local and even regional racers. There we were at age 15, duking it out with these guys. At that point, I thought, “Maybe I’m pretty good at this bike thing.” I started competing—just short races. A few years later, I began devoting all my time to the sport.
O Magazine interview
Bono talks about why is is nervous whenever he releases an album in an interview with O Magazine.
It’s much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won’t keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don’t know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we’ve got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, Is this it? Are we still relevant?
O Magazine interview
Parker gives her thoughts on the last show of HBO’s Sex and the City in an interview with O Magazine.
What a hard decision it was to end the show! I kept asking myself, How’s the party faring? And how am I faring? Right now the party’s in full swing, and I hope the audience feels the same. But I don’t want to crawl across the finish line with bloodied hands. And as scary as it is to leave—and as lucrative as it would be to stay—sometimes you have to do what’s risky.
O Magazine interview
Madonna speaks about kissing Spears on the MTV Video Music Awards in an interview with O Magazine.
When Britney went to kiss me, she just went for it. I tried to go with it so it wouldn’t be weird. I’m a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I’ve learned to roll with the punches. Also, you remember when Michael Jackson kissed Lisa Marie Presley on the MTV awards?
O Magazine interview
Roberts discusses winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for the movie Erin Brockovich in an interview with O Magazine.
I thought Ellen Burstyn was going to win, so I had a great weekend before. My sister and her husband were there, and it was something I wish everyone could experience just once. We went to the (pre-) Oscar parties, and everywhere you went, everybody seemed happy.
O Magazine interview
Williams talks about playing against her older sister Venus when she was growing up in an interview with O Magazine.
When we were younger, it was difficult for me to play Venus because she’d always beat me so badly. I had to improve just so I could stay in the game. Even now when we practice together, I have to watch out because she’ll just blow me off the court.
O Magazine interview
Hayek gives her thoughts on the challenges that Latin women face in Hollywood in an interview with O Magazine.
Because there was no industry or parts for Latin women when I came here, there was really no competitiveness. Jennifer Lopez and I were the first, and I think Jennifer was my partner at the beginning. I think it was important for others to see two of us, because maybe then we could be thought of as a social phenomenon. Because she doesn’t have a foreign accent, Jennifer tried out for parts I couldn’t get.
O Magazine interview
Jones discusses trying to determine where to take her musical career in an interview with O Magazine.
I was just trying to find my musical direction. I’d been singing straight-ahead jazz, and three years ago, that was all I wanted to do. Then I began writing songs and playing with my friends, and I started getting into country music again. I was also singing in this acid-jazz band. I was just trying to decide—
O Magazine interview
Leno discusses when he decided to pursue comedy as a career in an interview with O Magazine.
I always had day jobs, and I did comedy at night. I’d put my comedy money in one pocket and my job money in another, and I’d live on my comedy money. I still do. When it got to the point that one night of comedy was more than a week’s worth of day job money, I thought, Let me get myself some more nights of comedy and lose this regular job.
O Magazine interview
Lauren discusses creating the Nina Hyde Center for cancer research in an interview with O Magazine.
When I came out of the hospital, I met a wonderful woman, Nina Hyde, an editor in Washington, D.C., who had breast cancer. She said, You know, Ralph, you make these wonderful things for the outside—why aren’t you taking care of the inside? So I went to all the fashion designers and said, “Let’s do breast cancer,” and we raised money to start the Nina Hyde Center in Washington.
O Magazine interview
Donahue gives his thoughts on his talk show Donahue coming to an end in an interview with O Magazine.
I was anxious to walk. We’d lost our venue at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York (where the show had moved in 1985). I would tell anyone doing a show today to get 30 Rock. People from all over the world get off the plane and go there. We had smart, multiracial, international studio audiences—young people, daughters, mothers. We didn’t have to pull teeth to get their participation. It was the biggest natural high I could have. But then we moved to the New Yorker Hotel, across from Madison Square Garden, which was the opposite.
O Magazine interview
Brandy talks about why she left the television show Moesha in an interview with O Magazine.
I had no decision-making power on that show, yet I was blamed for so much. The same people who were smiling in my face were talking about me behind my back. Then I’d go home, and there was Satan, tearing me down. On top of that, I was trying to be thin because the camera adds ten pounds. I was abusing my body.
O Magazine interview
Rock gives his thoughts about why he walked away from The Chris Rock Show in an interview with O Magazine.
I really wanted to do movies, and it’s difficult to do movies on the side. Only if you’re Oprah can you say, I will shoot between July and September. And let me tell you—if I’m ever Oprah, I’m going to say, Can we shoot for one hour a day? It probably sounds crazy, but I may eventually go back to my show. I miss informing people and being an immediate part of the culture. I miss being able to do a whole piece on reparations. I miss the mix of having Adam Sandler on to sing some nasty song and then talking with Cornel West.
O Magazine interview
Fox talks about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in an interview with O Magazine.
When I was first diagnosed, my line to Tracy was It’s going to be okay—but I was really freaking out. I had no idea what Parkinson’s was, and I was in denial. After the diagnosis I didn’t even get a neurologist. You’ve probably read in People that I’m a nice guy—but when the doctor first told me I had Parkinson’s, I wanted to kill him. I thought, What a shitty thing to say to somebody! I just knew it was a mistake. So I started drinking a little more to keep from looking at it. I finally got to a pivotal point where I really worked on understanding it.
O Magazine interview
Rice talks her initial reaction to the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center in an interview with O Magazine.
I was at my desk in the White House at around 8:45 when my executive assistant came in and said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought, What a strange accident. I called the president and said, Mr. President, a plane hit the World Trade Center. And he said, What a weird accident. Around nine, after I went to a staff meeting, my assistant handed me a paper that said a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, and I thought, My God, this is a terrorist attack.
O Magazine interview
Giuliani talks about coping with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City in an interview with O Magazine.
I never imagined having to deal with this. But I’ve found myself relying on lessons my parents taught me years ago. My father used to say to me, If you’re in a crisis and everyone is getting very emotional, you’ve got to become calmer. That’s the only way to get yourself through it. (On Sept. 11) I remember saying to myself, I have to be very, very calm—because sometimes I can be very excitable. I am Italian, after all!
O Magazine interview
Albright talks about the impact that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had on the United States in an interview with O Magazine.
It makes us all realize that what we care most about is family. After such a crisis you want to just touch them—and if you can’t physically touch them, you want to at least make sure they’re all right. That gives you a sense of security. And then you think about your country: Why did this happen here? The horror of this was so unimaginable, you almost had to ask other people, Did this really happen? It was like waking up from a nightmare.
O Magazine interview
Taymor speaks about directing Broadway’s The Lion King in an interview with O Magazine.
I wasn’t afraid, but I was cautious. Everyone was asking me, Why are you doing Disney? You do folklore and mythology. My aesthetic is not a Disney aesthetic at all, but when I met with the wonderful producers at Disney, they weren’t looking for me to do their aesthetic. I’d already spent 20 years in the theater, so if they were going to hire me, they’d be hiring me for what I have to offer. Everyone learned a transforming lesson from The Lion King: You don’t have to patronize your audience, and you can mix art and commerce in a profound way.
O Magazine interview
Jones discusses the impact of a brain aneurysm he had at age 41 in an interview with O Magazine.
It made me realize that if I lived to age 82, I would have about 30,000 days on this earth. And that number had to be cut in thirds—I’d sleep for 10,000 days, work for 10,000 days, then do whatever else in the remaining time. After the aneurysm, the doctor told me that deep in our subconscious, each of us has either a life force or a death wish. He said those who have a death wish can be taken out by the flu. But the ones who have a life force survive.
O Magazine interview
Hanks speaks about how he got the Forrest Gump role:
I was fascinated by a script entitled The Postman, which was written by Eric Roth. I didn’t do that script, but I met Eric and we shared a lot of the same parameters of why we do what we do. So when a producer asked me, What do you think of the book Forrest Gump? [which Roth was writing a script for], I said, That guy can write anything! About a year and a half later, I got Eric’s script—and it was a rocket.