Oprah Winfrey has always been able to reach people far and wide, however, the billionaire business mogul wants to take her message to new heights with her newest Apple venture. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Empowerment issue, Winfrey discusses exactly how she’s going accomplish yet another goal.
Winfrey hopes her stories of mental health, sexual abuse and discrimination reach more eyeballs than they would had they been featured on her network, OWN.
“Apple exposes you to a whole lot more people. The thing that I’m really, really excited about — as I said that day — is creating the world’s largest book club,” Winfrey said. “And if I want to do a film or a doc series … The best place for [my docuseries on mental health] is not on OWN. Because you don’t have the bandwidth and you have to create a completely different audience and then you have to have marketing.”
Winfrey will also feature diverse subjects in her content because she wants the average person to relate—not just those who work in and out of the Hollywood industry. Her methodology is especially crucial and appreciated when it comes to sexual abuse
“My mission is always about letting other people know. ‘You’re not alone,’ ” she explained. “Obviously, we’re going to do the women in Hollywood and in the music business, but what was important to me was to be inclusive of waitresses and factory workers and nurses and nuns and people who you’d never imagine, so that the world can see themselves in their stories. I’ve been adamant that if you only tell the Hollywood story, you can only be partially heard.”
Elsewhere in the interview, she mentioned the controversy she faced for her involvement in HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary. In spite of the backlash, she initially just wanted to open up the dialogue around sexual abuse and misconduct.
“I really wanted to talk to not just the guys but other people who were seeing it because I knew that people were going to be triggered by it,” she said. “I knew that there would be people who would be re-traumatized by it and would see themselves in it, and I thought, ‘I can help thread the needle of what is actually happening here.’
And when it comes to 2020 election, unfortunately, she confirmed again, she is not running for president. Check out the full interview on here.
