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“Tell me, why are you so fat?” Imagine hearing that during your first appearance on a legendary late-night program. That’s precisely what Oprah Winfrey experienced on The Tonight Show with Joan Rivers in 1985. Rather than focusing on her successful role with A.M. Chicago, the actress found herself confronted about her weight.
In a revealing conversation on Monday’s episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show, Winfrey, 70, looked back on that pivotal moment. “Joan Rivers turns to me, and she says, ‘Tell me why are you so fat?'” she said on the podcast. “On national television! And I didn’t know what to do with that.”
Stunned, Winfrey elicited a lighthearted response, “Oh, I just love potato chips, Joan.” Yet, the follow-up was less gentle as Rivers reproached her, “Shame on you,” and conditionally invited her back to the show if she lost 15 pounds.
The Daytime Emmy winner went on to say that at the time, she agreed with Rivers, “I accept that I should be shamed because how dare me be sitting up here on The Tonight Show.” Winfrey recalled assuring the Fashion Police host that she would lose the weight, but confessed, “of course, I didn’t lose the 15 lbs… I went and ate my way to another 10 lbs.”
After this tough interaction, the media mogul went to a “health retreat” in an effort to slim down. “At the time, they called them fat farms,” she said. It was during this stay that Winfrey’s perspective would shift dramatically — thanks to a call from Steven Spielberg.
“I hear you’re at a fat farm,” the film director said. “You lose a pound, you could lose this part [in The Color Purple].” Winfrey noted that hearing from Spielberg was a full-circle moment, because she’d previously “let go” of the role.
“The instant I let go was the greatest life lesson I have ever received because I physically felt the release,” she said. “The second I did that it changed.”
Winfrey landed the role of Sophia in the 1985 drama, a movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s book, The Color Purple. As a result of her performance, the movie star went on to win an Oscar nomination.
“That became my grounding teaching for the rest of my life and career,” she shared. “Do everything you can, work as hard as you can, and then let it go.”
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