Oprah Winfrey interview
Jackson is interviewed by Winfrey. They talk about the alienation from childhood that Jackson felt as a young man who was always working, relationship with his family and time together, Latoya’s book and if any disgust is felt about how she ridiculed the family. They also talk about the awkwardness Jackson felt through adolescence.
That is why I think now, because I didn’t have it then, I compensate for that. People wonder why I always have children around me. I find the thing that I never had through them. You know Disneyland, amusement parks, arcade games. I adore all that stuff because when I was little it was always, work, work, work.
Oprah Winfrey interview
Winfrey talks with Jackson about the origin of the title “The King of Pop”, his feeling about romance, relationships and marriage, the type of women that he prefers, his crush on Diana Ross when he was a child. Elizabeth Taylor, Jackson’s close friend, also joins the interview and talks about his warm personality.
I would feel that my life is not complete if I do not (marry). ‘Cause I adore the family life, I adore children and I adore that whole thing. I would love to. That’s one of my dreams but I couldn’t right now because I’m married to my work. I’m married to my music and it has to be that closeness in order to do the kind of work that I wanna do.
Oprah Winfrey interview
Jackson is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. They talk about Jackson’s collaboration with Slash on Give in to me, Jackson’s fascination with animals, claims that Jackson wanted to be the only candidate to singing for President Clinton’s inauguration. Jackson also highlights what he would like to be remembered for by his fans and right now in his present life.
I love what I do and I would love people to love what I do and to be loved. I just simply want to be loved wherever I go because all over the world…because I love people of all races from my heart with true affection.
Nelson Mandela interview
Winfrey interviews Nelson Mandela on Opera’s Next Chapter. Winfrey asks Mandela questions of family, oppression and imprisonment.
Oprah Winfrey interview
Jackson is asked by Winfrey, what it’s like working with Quincy Jones.
He’s very professional, very talented and he’s a musical visionary, and he’s been around, as you know, a very long time.
O Magazine interview
Foxx talks to Winfrey for O Magazine about the most successful event in his career.
Winning the Oscar. Everybody was crying. Speedy, a friend I’ve known since I was Eric Bishop, and all the other guys couldn’t hold back. Because it’s like this: Halle and Denzel are supposed to win the Oscars. Speedy and I were always just a couple of Wet Willies [pranksters] with cops harassing us. You know how our folks are: When one of us wins, we all just want to celebrate.
O Magazine interview
Davis talks to Winfrey for O Magazine about her role in the show Oval Office.
We know how powerful media images are. The show is entertainment but seeing a woman in this role week after week makes people comfortable with the idea. That’s when television is of its greatest service. This show gives us a picture of a real woman with a somewhat rounded life. Some people have asked, Why do you have to include a family? Well, every president during my lifetime has had children.
O Magazine interview
Rusesabagina gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about his memoir, An Ordinary Man.
Men I’d known for years were carrying machetes, grenades, guns, spears any weapon you can think of. Neighbors I’d seen as gentlemen had suddenly become killers in military uniforms.
O Magazine interview
Meg Ryan gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about CARE an international aid organization.
CARE came to me because they were initiating a campaign called I Am Powerful, which is about paralleling the lives of women in the first world with women in the third world. They’re always looking for the seed of the idea that can be most productive in building people’s lives. I just kept thinking, Wow, this is a beautiful idea. I’d gone to India before, but I’ve never seen it the way I did with CARE. Have you been there?
O Magazine interview
Blige gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about the meaning of her album The Breakthrough.
It means a lot. One day I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere by blaming other people for my circumstances. I finally understood: Even if you feel someone has wronged you or owes you something, no one is going to give you anything for free. In the inner city, there’s a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I’ve gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.
O Magazine interview
Jackman gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about career lessons he learns from his dad.
I had a fairly enlightened dad, though if you looked at his résumé, it might not seem that way. He was a chartered accountant for Price Waterhouse. He was strict, and we had a very ordered life. To this day, I am the least materialistic person I know, because my father didn’t raise me to just go out and buy this or that car. The only reason I wanted to make money as an actor was because I’m passionate about food! But as disciplined as my father was with money, he would never try to save a dime on education. He loved being an accountant. He’d tell me, You’ve got to love what you do because it’s going to take a lot of your effort and time. He had only one reservation about my being an actor. He said, I think you’re too thin-skinned. And I am fairly thin-skinned.
O Magazine interview
Fitch gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about why she became a writer.
Yes. My father was an engineer he wasn’t literary, not a writer or a journalist, but he was one of the world’s great readers. Every two weeks, he’d take me to our local branch library and pull books off the shelf for me, stacking them up in my arms. Have you read this? And this? And this? He taught me to always take out the maximum number of books I think it was 12 so in case there were books I didn’t like, I’d always have something else to read. If I became a reader and then a writer, I can say that it was because of his love of books and his sharing that love. When you’re a little kid, you are small, your life is small and you’re terrifically aware of that. But when you read, you can ride Arabian horses across the desert, you can be a dog-sledder.
O Magazine interview
Streisand gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about her childhood and teaching her mother how to smoke at age 10.
Very early. I was kind of a wild child, like an animal. I could never sit still at a table not that my family ever sat down and ate a meal together. I used to stand over the stove and eat out of a pot. There was no mealtime. I have no idea when my brother and sister ate, because I came in whenever I wanted. I also taught my mother how to smoke when I was 10.
O Magazine interview
Combs talks to Winfrey for O Magazine about his career goals and dreams.
I want to have a cultural impact. I want to be an inspiration, to show people what can be done. I’ve always been a daydreamer. When the other kids were playing, I was listening to the roar at Yankee Stadium I was always attracted to the roar of the crowd. I wanted to know: What would make somebody roar like that? I was always looking at the hustle and bustle of people working. I wanted to work.
O Magazine interview
Rhimes speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about watching herself on TV during an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
I catch 20 minutes here or there, but I find it hard to watch. I want the show to be everything we shoot. After an episode is edited, there are whole chunks you guys won’t get to see. I’m like, Oooh, that was such a good scene. But I like watching the other actors.
O Magazine interview
Kennedy Jr. speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about if he has a fear of terrorist attacks in the United States.
I think the worst thing this White House has done is to use fear as a governing tool. No, I don’t fear for our country in terms of an attack. They’ve used the excuse that 9/11 suddenly put us in the most dangerous part of our history. That’s nonsense. When you and I were raised, there were 25,000 nuclear warheads pointed at America, and we faced absolute annihilation. That was a dangerous time. When George Washington fought the British and his troops didn’t have shoes, that was a dangerous time. And during the Civil War, if we had lost Gettysburg, the United States of America would have disappeared.
O Magazine interview
McFadden speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine and tells how she feels about living in the same house where her children were murdered.
This is where they were born. I can still see their smudgy handprints on the walls. The plants they planted are here. Stuart’s tree is out in the front yard. Stan painted the house. The few minutes it took somebody to come in and put bullets into them is not what my children are all about.
O Magazine interview
Fantasia speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about being raped as a teenager.
I had a crush on this guy. He was the best ballplayer, and all the girls wanted him. I thought I had no chance with him. One day during a game after school, I was flaunting around in an itty-bitty dress. I was flirting, and he told me, You’re going to get something you don’t want. And that’s exactly what happened. Yes. I went home and threw away my clothes. I didn’t tell my mama because I thought she would say, I told you so. I just lay on my bed, and I didn’t go to school for a couple of days. My mom came to me and said, Something’s not right with you. I know that somebody put his hands on you. That’s when I knew I had her support. We turned the guy in, but going back to school was hell; his homeboys would say, I’m going to do to you exactly what he did. They thought it was funny. That’s when I quit school.
O Magazine interview
Seinfeld speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about producing Bee Movie.
I asked Steven Spielberg to direct a commercial I was going to make for American Express. I’d never met him, but I thought, What the hell why don’t I call? I’m Jerry Seinfeld, I’m not just nobody. [Laughs] Steven says, I can’t do it, but why don’t we have dinner tomorrow in East Hampton? I say, That sounds great. Then I hang up the phone and go, Oh my God! I’m a Jewish boy from Long Island, and I’m having dinner with Steven Spielberg! It was like my second Bar Mitzvah.
[At dinner] when we started talking about kids we were off to the races, but then the conversation ground to a halt. It happens to the best of us. As an entertainer, that’s when I kick into gear and say something witty to jump-start the conversation. The night before, I was sitting with a couple of friends, eating a Twizzler, and I said, What if somebody did a film called Bee Movie, and it was about bees? So during the dinner with Steven, I said this to relieve the lull we’d just crashed into. I figured, he’s a director, he’ll relate to the term B movie. But he didn’t laugh; he fixed his eyes on me and said, We’re going to make that movie. I was like, What do you mean we, Kemosabe? He said it was a great idea, and when he gets excited, it’s almost scary. He can get everyone else in the room excited! You don’t meet older people like that too often. It’s wonderful.
O Magazine interview
Washington speaks to Oprah in an interview for O Magazine about his role in The Great Debaters.
Man, it just moved me. I felt an emotional connection. What I learned while doing research for the film is that many black colleges, like Wiley and Morehouse, opened during the decade following the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. That’s because education was believed to be the way out, so when millions of black people were finally let go after almost 250 years, boom, we opened schools. And that’s partly why Melvin Tolson’s debate team was able to beat these other national teams in the ’30s: Great thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Melvin B. Tolson couldn’t teach at schools like Harvard or Columbia. But the film is really about the kids and the journey of one boy in particular.