Oprah Winfrey visits David Letterman.
Letterman: Oprah Winfrey, ladies and gentlemen. Офра Уинфри, дамы и господа.
I just want to highlight a couple of things because at 13 you're livin' with your father in Nashville –
OPRAH: Yeah, yeah.
LETTERMAN: – and you're a kid –
OPRAH: Fourteen.
LETTERMAN: – fourteen – you get a chance at kind of another start in your life and within two years you're doing news at a local radio station. .
OPRAH: Yeah!
LETTERMAN: That's unbelievable.
OPRAH: Yeah, and you know what's interesting, I've been on TV since I was 19 every day of my life. Been doing TV since I was 19. I don't know how many years that is, but it's a long time. Long time.
LETTERMAN: And then you went to Chicago. And where was it they wanted to change your name to “Susie”?
OPRAH: That was in Baltimore.
LETTERMAN: Baltimore.
OPRAH: Baltimore.
LETTERMAN: You were gonna be “Susie Winfrey.”
OPRAH: “Susie Winfrey! Susie Winfrey, reporting here, Eyewitness News, Susie Winfrey.” And, you know, I didn't stand -- I wasn't myself then and I didn't stand up for a lot of things. You know, growing up, “Oprah” is not a popular name. You never would hear your name called on Romper Room , nobody – you were never going to find one of those license tags, bookplate things, you're never gonna see – and when you're a kid you just wanta fit in, and it was not a good name for me. You get made fun of a lot. But as I grew older it started to feel like myself, that name. And I just didn't want to change it. I'm glad I didn't.
LETTERMAN: No, you shouldn't have changed it.
OPRAH: I was told nobody would ever remember it and everybody would always screw it up.
LETTERMAN: Everybody does remember it. And you should enjoy and cherish the uniqueness of it that has befit you.
OPRAH: Thank you, Dave.
LETTERMAN: Yeah, you're quite welcome.
OPRAH: Thank you.
LETTERMAN: Now here's a thing, I'll tell you my pedestrian impression of the world situation.
OPRAH: OK.
LETTERMAN: And you tell me if I'm on to something. Today on the radio I heard that the United States was saying that in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa they were providing aid for 400,000 HIV victims, patients, and this was up incredibly from like 30,000 patients they were providing for, and from what I know from reading various stories about the conditions in Africa, I thought that 400,000 is good but overall, continent-wide, country-to-country it's just a drop in the bucket.
OPRAH: It's not even a drop in the bucket. There's a pandemic going on. There's millions of children who are going to be suffering, and I, you know, I've done what I can and what I will continue to do is wake up the world as to what's really happening. I mean, there are other issues even in this country that are far more disturbing, but you don't want to talk about those, do you?
LETTERMAN: Well, I'm always taken by what I think – my feeling is about Africa between the crime and the disease and the famine and the genocide and on and on – is it possible that the continent is in dire prospects, that it could, something cataclysmic, happen there.
OPRAH: This is what I feel about Africa, India, other places in the world where people haven't had the benefit and the access to anything that we have had. I feel that children starve because the rest of the world sits back and does nothing. I feel that there are enough people on the planet that could change the face of Africa and India and any other country or continent if everybody did what they were supposed to do. But we sit back and we read it and you look at it and you pass, go on, and you have a cappuccino and do nothing.
LETTERMAN: Right. And to see the numbers, it's not thousands, it's not hundreds of thousands, it's millions.
OPRAH: It is millions.
LETTERMAN: It's millions of people.
OPRAH: But you can't get overwhelmed by that, Dave. Don't let that overwhelm you. Because I was just recently – when I was there the last time, I went with a friend and the friend had never been. They were like, “What are we gonna...?” There's so much. You just do what you can. You do what you can.
LETTERMAN: Can you tell me – and I don't want to embarrass you – tell me what you are doing?
OPRAH: In Africa?
LETTERMAN: Specifically in South Africa.
OPRAH: Well, specifically this – I can't believe you're being this serious, but this is good.
LETTERMAN: What, do you want Tony Danza?
OPRAH: No, no.
LETTERMAN: Hey Tony!
OPRAH: No, no. No. You want to know what I'm doing in Africa?
LETTERMAN: Yes I do.
OPRAH: OK. I am building a leadership academy for girls and, that will house the best thing anybody has ever seen for girls' education in South Africa and I'm going to go village to village – personally myself and with a team of people – and pull young girls out of the village or hut and never, never would have dreamed of having an opportunity for an education because you're a second-class citizen if you're a girl in Africa and other countries, and give them an opportunity to come to my school and become the leaders of Africa. And I'm doing that one group at a time. I'm building the girls' academy. And I'm going to – I will be, I'm going to do The Color Purple, and then I'm going to the Kennedy Center for Tina Turner, and then I'm gonna get on a plane to to to Africa. I'm interviewing principals, so I'm going over to interview principals and set up the curriculum and – I'm building a school.
LETTERMAN: Was this all your idea? It it the model -- are you reproducing something that has worked somewhere else in the world?
OPRAH: It's my idea because I believe that education is freedom. I believe that education saved my life and I think that's how I'm gonna save – that's my contribution. And, you know, obviously, you know, I have a foundation and we do lots of things. What I try to do is use whatever I have to educate people. I can't believe you're this serious. I don't know what to say.
LETTERMAN: That's tremendous. It's tremendous. And God bless you for doing that.
OPRAH: Thank you for being so nice to me.
LETTERMAN: Absolutely. We'll be right back here with Oprah Winfrey.
[BREAK]
5:43
LETTERMAN: All right. It's been great fun. I'm so happy you're here. And I guess we'll just pencil you in for another 16 years.
OPRAH: No, this was the time because I'm right across the street. We're neighbors. I'm in the neighborhood.
LETTERMAN: And tonight is the opening night and the curtain goes up – is it about 8:00 is when it goes up?
OPRAH: No, no. It's going up earlier.
LETTERMAN: Earlier. So you actually have to be there, for heaven's sake..
OPRAH: I have to go.
LETTERMAN: I'll be happy to escort you over there.
OPRAH: You are going to escort me over?
LETTERMAN: Yes, I'll take you right over. Ladies and gentlemen, Oprah Winfrey.
OPRAH: Oh my goodness.
LETTERMAN: Are you all right?
OPRAH: I'm all right.
LETTERMAN: Right through here. Watch your step, watch your step. Here's where it's gonna get dicey, a little bit.
OPRAH: OK. [GARBLED]
LETTERMAN: I'm not sure where we're going. [GARBLED] Oh my goodness. Are you all right?
OPRAH: I'm OK.
LETTERMAN: It's like as if we'd gotten married. This is what it would be like.
OPRAH: No.
LETTERMAN: All right. Hi, how are you? Oh, heavens. It's real pleasant out here, isn't it? Am I walking too fast for you? How do you do? We'll see you at the reception. Thank you very much. Oh my. Do you know those people?
OPRAH: Some of those people.
LETTERMAN: Oh my gosh. Do you see anything? Thank goodness. Watch yourself. I gotta put you inside here. Oh, my God. Look everyone, it's Oprah! Oh, man! Thank you very much. Have a wonderful [GARBLED]. God bless you, Oprah. Nice to see you. Oprah Winfrey, everybody. We'll be right back. Thank you very much. Thank you, Paul. How about that Oprah? You know what I'm talking about? That's something right there. That's a force of life.
PAUL: Man, you got that right.
LETTERMAN: Absolutely. My thanks again.
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