Who would mess with the magic that is Oprah Winfrey?
The media mogul recently revealed in a wide-ranging cover story for The Hollywood Reporter that she was told she was “too emotional” during her short-lived time at CBS’ 60 Minutes. Winfrey added that she realized 60 Minutes was not for her when she felt herself “flattening out my personality.”
“I’ve removed myself from that. It was not the best format for me,” she continued. “How should I say this? [It’s] never a good thing when I have to practice saying my name and have to be told that I have too much emotion in my name.”
“I was working on pulling myself down and flattening out my personality — which, for me, is actually not such a good thing,” Winfrey added.
Winfrey, who joined 60 Minutes as a special correspondent in 2017, admitted that she tried hard to meet the producer’s expectations.
“I think I did seven takes on just my name because it was ‘too emotional.’ I go, ‘Is the too much emotion in the Oprah part or the Winfrey part?’”
Although it’s not clear when she quietly stepped away from that gig, Winfrey said the entire ordeal reminded her of a time when she was a young reporter and was given the exact same criticism.
Of late, Winfrey is keeping busy with her new multi-year deal with Apple, which will allow her to create original programming that slowly led to the success of her eponymous network, OWN.
And she’s not selfish with the knowledge she’s gained from starting the network, which famously came with some bumps.
Winfrey told THR that she helped the Obamas navigate through identifying their leadership team for their new company, Higher Ground Productions. The couple secured an agreement with Netflix last year to produce scripted and unscripted series along with documentaries.
“He called me for names to run [their company], and I offered him some,” Winfrey said of Obama. “They ultimately were not the people he chose, but that’s fine.”
“There’s nobody like them. Nobody,” Winfrey continued. “Their desire to want to use this medium to tell stories, to show us our history, to bring an informational, inspirational approach to content—I’m looking forward to seeing whatever that’s going to be.”