Getty
Oprah might be Oprah, the woman whose touch or co-sign can make books bestsellers and men into future presidents, but she still has to put in work in the film industry to get opportunities.
And while she recently said that Ava DuVernay asked her to be in the upcoming release A Wrinkle in Time without any type of screen test, Oprah told TMZ that she still has to audition for projects. Not every audition, even in recent years, has gone as planned.
“I would have to audition for a role and I’ve gotten turned down for roles because of the Oprah factor,” she told photogs.
According to the 64-year-old, she actually tried to go for the role of Mrs. Miller in Doubt, but director John Patrick Shanley said she might be a bit too much for such a small part.
“Yeah, Doubt. I wanted to be in Doubt. I mean, it’s fantastic because Viola [Davis] got it,” she said. “She was wonderful. But the director told me no because the part wasn’t long enough to use the Oprah factor.”
Even though the character received a short amount of screen time, playing Mrs. Miller provided Davis with the exposure to help her career take off. She was also nominated for an Academy Award, her first, and on the set of Doubt is where her bond with Meryl Streep was created.
Interesting enough, Davis revealed in 2009 that she had to fight pretty much all of Black Hollywood for the role.
“Every black actress in America was auditioning for this role. I had to really audition,” she told the A.V. Club. “That was in L.A., and then I had to do a screen test in New York with six other actresses. We were flown into New York, put up in a hotel, and the next morning, in 45-minute sessions, we were each put in total hair, makeup, wardrobe, and we had to perform the scene in front of the camera with the full crew, all the producers, and the director. So there were seven Mrs. Millers walking around a soundstage.”
