Oprah takes a chance
2005-03-03 07:58
Los Angeles - It's not always easy to cast an Oscar winner in a TV role, but Oprah Winfrey did just that for Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Although they're friends, Winfrey said she was "a little nervous" about asking Halle Berry to star in the film - which airs on Sunday on US television network ABC - because she had won an Oscar for Monster's Ball.
"I don't know what happens to you once you win an Academy Award," Winfrey told reporters recently.
"I didn't know whether she was going to be, like, 'Now I have an Oscar. I'm sorry. I cannot talk to you.' No, she's too sweet to do that. But I didn't know whether or not she would be interested in doing television."
Winfrey, who frequently championed books on her daytime talk show, produced the TV movie adaptation of the novel by Zora Neale Hurston.
"My grandmother taught me to read, and the information that I received in books allowed me to see at a very early age that there was a life beyond my front porch," she said.
Their Eyes Were Watching God also stars Michael Ealy, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Ruby Dee. Berry stars as Janie Crawford, whose journey takes her through three marriages with very different men.
On the net:
www.oprah.com
abc.go.com/
- AP