Equity Mag Feb_18 Book Folder

COVER STORY
Last year Meryl Streep won the same Cecil
B. DeMille Award and it felt like a
completely different time, as it was all about
Donald Trump becoming the President.
This time there were all the sexual
harassment allegations and everyone wore
black at the ceremony. After your emotional
speech, do you feel the country, together as
a whole, is moving in a better direction than
last year?
I always think, and know, having watched it over
the years through thousands and thousands of
interviews and watching people in their
dysfunction, that when something negative is
brewing, that there is the direct opposite reaction
that is also possible. For every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction. When something as
big as what started to happen in October with
Harvey Weinstein (sexual harassment accusations),
started to unfold, I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa,
and with every day’s revelation, here is an
opportunity for powerful growth. How do we use
this moment to elevate what is happening instead
of continually victimizing ourselves?
What did you think about the idea of
wearing black and a ‘#TimesUp’ button on
the red carpet?
I think that wearing black in solidarity is one step.
What Time’s Up is doing with the legal defense
fund is a major step. It was very important to all
of us involved, to state that it’s not just about the
women of Hollywood, because we are already a
privileged group, but to extend to the women of
the world. Because as I said in my speech, there
isn’t a culture, a race, a religion, a politic, or a
workplace that hasn’t been affected by it. And it’s
been happening for a very long time. People
didn’t feel that they could speak up, and there are
so many women who have endured so much and
remained silent and kept going because there was
no other recourse, and now that we’ve all joined
as one voice, it is empowerment to those women
who never had it.
You are on top of the world and everybody
talks about your speech at the Golden Globes.
What humbles you right now?
The Cecil B. DeMille award humbles me. When
they first called my name and said they wanted me
to accept it, I said, “I shouldn’t be the person to get
the Cecil B. DeMille award.” I was working with
Reese Witherspoon this past spring and winter, and
I happened to just say in the makeup room one
morning, “Oh, how many movies have you done?”
and she said “I don’t know. It’s been so many.” And
then I thought, “I hope they don’t ask me because I
think it’s been five.” And so, I didn’t understand it,
but then they explained that it’s about overall
entertainment. What I was able to do with the Oprah
show and the cultural statement we were able to
make throughout the world, I feel extremely proud
of that, but I think that when it comes to films, I am
really the new kid on the block. I always feel like
when I’m acting, that I am out of my box. It’s the
most intimidated I ever feel.
What would you say is the greatest lesson
you’ve learned throughout your life and career?
It’s a lesson from Maya Angelou, when I first
met her. And after I’d known her for a while,
she said, “Baby, you need to know that when
people show you who they are, you believe them
the first time. And the problem is it takes you 29
times.” This is the same lesson coming in a
different skirt, wearing a different pair of pants.
I think that has been one of my greatest wisdom
teachings, to assess from people’s behavior,
their actions, not just towards me, but towards
other people – who they are and how they
behave. Because if people talk about other
people, they’ll talk about you. I think in business
and personal relationships, that’s always been
my greatest lesson. Also, staying grounded, has
been great for me.
When you look over your life, what advice would
you give to a seven-year-old Oprah Winfrey
about surviving as a woman in this world?
At seven, I was so sad. All my real love came
from my teachers. You have no idea the power
of noticing another human being and what it
feels like when somebody knows that they have
been seen, truly seen by you. It is the greatest
offering you can give, and all those years of the
Oprah Show, the greatest lesson I learned was
that after every show, someone would say,
invariably, in one way or another, how was that?
I did an interview with a father who killed
his twin daughters, followed by an interview
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EQUITY