By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
September 27, 2000
The October issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, features an interview with Sidney Poitier, which the magazine’s namesake describes as “the most extraordinary conversation” of her life.
Writing with respect and much love, Winfrey doesn’t attempt to mask her awe of Poitier, whose accomplishments include being the only black man to win a best actor Oscar.
“When Sidney and I part, I weep,” she writes. “He leaves me feeling expanded, more hopeful and more human, and willing to engage in the complete arc of life.”
The interview gives some insight into the actor, who, even as a poor man, refused all but two roles that he found demeaning to his race, family and himself. One was “The Long Ships”; the other was “Porgy and Bess.” Film producer Sam Goldwyn wanted Poitier for the role of Porgy and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I told him as respectfully as I could that I couldn’t play the part,” Poitier says in the article. “He said, `Do me a favor: Go back to New York and think about it for two weeks.’
And I said, `But I know now!’ And he said, `Just think about it.’ When I went back to my hotel, there was a script waiting for me called `The Defiant Ones.’ I read the script in one sitting and said to [my agent] Marty, `This is something I’d like to do. Tell Mr. Goldwyn that I’d like to meet with Stanley Kramer’–the guy who wanted me to do this movie.
“And [Stanley] said, `I would love to have you play in it, but you have one problem–Sam Goldwyn.’ Sam was one of the most powerful men in the entire industry. And having gone public with the news that I may play the Porgy role, he had put himself on the line. … So I had a lot of thinking to do, and I agonized. Finally, Marty and I came up with the only thing I could do, because I wanted to do `The Defiant Ones.’ I did one movie, `Porgy and Bess,’ so I could do the other. It was painful, but it was useful.”
Some other questions beg to be asked. For instance, we are told that Poitier had never dealt with racism in his native Bahamas. But at 15, while visiting his older brother in Florida, Poitier had an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan. Was this encounter verbal or physical? And how, if at all, did this affect him as a man?
The October issue of O marks Amy Gross’ first full issue as editor in chief, but the direction hasn’t changed much since the magazine’s April debut issue. O is heavy on self-help columns and self-empowering stories.
As for the ad content, the current issue contains 165 pages of advertising, compared with the launch issue’s 168.
