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By Jeanne Wolf
Parade
Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are two stars who have developed a close
friendship based on a common bond of struggle. Winfrey's talk show, magazine,
and films have earned her enormous wealth and influence. Five of Perry's movies
have opened at No. 1 at the box office. He's become a Hollywood powerhouse
writing, directing, and starring in films such as "Madea's Family Reunion," "Why Did I Get Married?" and "I Can Do Bad All by Myself."
In addition to their success, they share a rough climb from poverty. As they
talk, they dig deep into their pasts and tell stories about the tough times they
had growing up. Both were abused as kids and faced lower-than-low expectations.
Both acknowledge that they were blessed with the will and skill to push past the
doubters.
Now they are joining forces to support "Precious," a powerful film due out Nov. 6 about a severely
obese pregnant Harlem teenage mother who tries to overcome seemingly impossible
odds -- illiteracy, an abusive mother, and rape -- to find hope and a chance at
a new life.
Also: Additional interviews with the stars of
"Precious"
Winfrey herself was the child of an unwed teenage mother. After she was sent
to live with her grandmother, she recalls, "I really had a faith in something
bigger than myself. So I always knew from the time I was about 4 years old that
the life I was living in rural Mississippi with my grandmother was not going to
be my future. Don't ask me how I knew.
"I wasn't a dreamer as much as I was a reader," Winfrey adds. "That allowed
me to see from an early, early age that there was a world beyond my backyard,
literally -- there was a world bigger than I could imagine. I'd never been
anywhere any farther than the church that was down the road, which you could see
from the front porch. I guess where the words took me was to let my imagination
flow. When I was reading, that was my escape.
"I knew at an early age that I was going to have to go it alone," she
continues with tears in her eyes. "For me, that realization came when I left my
grandmother, whom I loved dearly, and got sent back to live with my mother in
Milwaukee. I was 6. I never grieved. It was the voice of God, spirit intuition,
saying, 'Okay, you're on your own.' I didn't waste time crying, 'Oh, my
grandmother's gone. I'm not going to see her anymore.' I knew I had to move
forward."
Perry can't forget the hardest part of growing up poor in New Orleans. "My
father was profane and abusive," he says. "Anger and frustration made me get up
and go to work every day to prove him wrong, while he kept saying that I would
never amount to anything. That I got through that says, 'Here's a lifeline -- I
made it, and you can, too.'
"My escape was also about running from poverty," he adds. "That's what's
still driving me, still pushing, propelling me forward."
Perry feels that the theme of hope should resonate in all of his work. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
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