Inspired by a true story, Lee Daniels The Butler chronicles the life of one of the first black butlers hired to serve in The White House during the civil rights movement. For the first time in 15 years, Oprah returns to the big screen playing Forest Whitaker’s unfaithful wife, and as we soon found out had all the men on set singing her praises.
Cuba Gooding Jr., who plays Oprah’s love interest in the film, says “there is an “Oprah factor’ when you first meet her, but then as soon as she opens her mouth it just melts away because she’s just so cool.”; To which Lenny Kravitz added, “she made sure she was one of the cast members and not Oprah Winfrey. She laid back, she did her job, she was quiet… you didn’t feel the whole Oprah machine on the set.”;
Academy Award-winner and co-star, Forest couldn’t help but be in awe of his onscreen wife. “It was amazing working with [Oprah],”; he says, adding that co-starring in a film was a longtime coming for the real-life friends. “When I did Last King of Scotland, she called me up and asked to have a little party, gathering, and that’s when I first got to know her, it was so kind of her. And as we became deeper friends, we decided we wanted to work together as actors, but we could never find a project.”; Luckily enough, Lee Daniels stepped into the picture with a new project, one that Forest says blew him away at times. “She was so committed, so real and so authentic that I was actually thrown at times.”;
As it turns out, the credit for getting Oprah to let her guard down can be given to the director. “Once I got her in my web, she became vulnerable and fragile,”; Oscar-winning Lee tells us, adding with a little spice, “I said “get naked for me hunny, be provocative!'”;
Tune-in to ET Canada tonight for more with the actors of Lee Daniels’ The Butler and tell us, are you excited to see Oprah in the new film?
