Source: Ruven Afanador / The Hollywood Reporter / Ruven Afanador / The Hollywood Reporter Oprah Winfrey Talks About Backlash Over “Leaving Neverland” And Leaving Acting The Queen of Media Oprah Winfrey is the subject of an in-depth interview for the cover of The Hollywood Reporter’s first-ever Empowerment in Entertainment issue. Winfrey will receive the first-ever Empowerment Award at the accompanying Empowerment in Entertainment gala Tuesday (4/30) afternoon in Los Angeles. We absolutely LOVED this one — especially some gems she dropped about hateration, quitting acting AND “60 Minutes” and the current political climate. Check out some key excerpts via THR below: On advice she gave Gayle King on renewing her CBS News contract: I said, “Get what you want. Get exactly what you want because now’s the time. And if you don’t get what you want, then make the next right move.” Even without me, she was going to do that. But that was my advice, and I actually called up her lawyer, Allen Grubman, and I said, “Allen, she should get what she wants.” And Allen goes, “What the F do you think I’m doing here? I said the same thing to her!” The negotiation was already happening before her R. Kelly interview. On her reaction to the R. Kelly interview: I sent her a text saying, “Jesus looooves you.” But [the R. Kelly interview] could not have been better if I had done that myself. I think every interviewer thinks, “What would you have done in that moment?” And what she did was absolute perfection. On why she recently left 60 Minutes: I’ve removed myself from that. It was not the best format for me … How should I say this? 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 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?’ I was working on pulling myself down and flattening out my personality — which, for me, is actually not such a good thing. We love it. You’ve got to do what feels good and right for you and Oprah sends such a strong message by speaking openly about her decision to leave “60 Minutes” — of course she will have a great platform in the work she’s doing with Apple — so we’ll still get plenty of her journalistic side. Hit the flip for more great quotes.
