Oprah, Forest Whitaker on 'The Butler'
COOPER: Tonight, a BIG 360 interview, Oprah Winfrey. It's been 15 years since she appeared on the big screen in the movie "Beloved," but starting tomorrow, she's back in movie theaters, co-starring with Forest Whitaker in "Lee Daniels' The Butler." Oprah told me she wanted to do the film because of its backdrop of the civil rights movement and because of where we are in the evolution of our nation right now. More on that in a moment. But first, a clip from the movie, based on a true story. Forest Whitaker stars as a butler who served American presidents over three decades, and the film shows how changes in society and the White House over that time affected his own family. Take a look.</s>WINFREY: What was the name of that movie, honey?</s>FOREST WHITAKER, ACTOR: "In the Heat of the Night."</s>WINFREY: "In the Heat of the Night," with Sidney Poitier.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sidney Poitier is a white man's fantasy of what he wants us to be.</s>WHITAKER: What are you talking about? He just won the Academy Award. He's breaking down barriers for all of us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not about being white, it's about acting white. Sidney Poitier is nothing but an Uncle Tom.</s>WHITAKER: Look at you, all toughed up. Covering your ear, saying whatever you want.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?</s>WHITAKER: Get the hell out of my house! Get on out!</s>WINFREY: Everybody just sit down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, Mr. Butler. I didn't mean to make fun of your hero.</s>WINFREY: Everything you are, and everything you have is because of that butler.</s>COOPER: I spoke at length to Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey about the film and about race in America, particularly after the Trayvon Martin case. Here's part of that interview.</s>COOPER: You talked about this coming at an important time. Certainly there has been, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, a discussion about raise in this country. That -- it's interesting. I saw a Gallup poll recently that the majority of African-Americans say this is a discussion which needs to be had. A majority of whites say too much is being made of this discussion.</s>WINFREY: I know, I know.</s>COOPER: How do you -- what do you...</s>WINFREY: That's why I love the film, in light of this discussion, is because it brings context to the discussion. When you look at the film, beginning with that lynching scene and ending with, you know, walking into Obama's office, look at what has happened in the span of one man's lifetime, in our country.</s>WHITAKER: This movie reminds us that the circular motion of things is trying to work themselves out, is still going on, as in Emmett Till. And now we're looking at Trayvon. We're looking at Oscar Grant, looking at all these situations and recognizing that we have to move ourselves forward in order for us to achieve our potential or what we said we're going to do.</s>WINFREY: And the truth of the matter is, Emmett Till became a symbol for those times, as Trayvon Martin has become a symbol for this time. I mean, there are multiple Trayvon Martins whose names never make the newspapers or the headlines. The circumstances surrounding that allowed it to be, but there were multiple Emmett Tills. There were multiple lynchings. There were multiple, you know, young black boys...</s>WINFREY: ... whose names are not remembered and often not even reported.</s>COOPER: It's interesting to me, though, how people from different backgrounds see this. I talked to a juror on the Trayvon Martin case, who clearly did not understand or did not feel linked to Trayvon Martin; felt connected to George Zimmerman in a way but not to Trayvon Martin. And I wonder if she felt race was not part of this case at all. I'm just wondering...</s>WINFREY: People feel that it's race, because they don't call it race. That's not what they call it. They don't say, oh -- because you know what I found, too? A lot of people, if think they're not using the "N" word themselves, they actually physically are not using the "N" word themselves and do not have -- harbor ill will towards black people, that it's not racist. But, you know, to me it's ridiculous to look at that case and think that race wasn't involved.</s>COOPER: It's interesting. You talk about the "N" word. In the film, it's used very early on. But what's fascinating, it's not just used by the guys on the plantation. It's used by LBJ, and which in those LBJ recordings you hear him use it. And in the film, there's a scene where people in the kitchen are saying -- are seeing him on TV saying "negro." And somebody says, like, "When did he start -- when did he start to use that word?"</s>WINFREY: Right.</s>COOPER: "He always uses the 'N' word."</s>WINFREY: The "N" word, right.</s>COOPER: So was that hard for you? I mean, I know you've spoken publicly about...</s>WINFREY: Yes.</s>COOPER: ... the importance of not using that word.</s>WINFREY: I think it depends on the context of the time which you were raised. I was raised in the '60s and...</s>COOPER: In Mississippi.</s>WINFREY: And I a child -- not only that, I'm a student of my history. I have said this many times. It's not a part of who I am to use that word. I understand why other people do. It's impossible for me to do it, because I know the history. And I know that, for so many of my relatives, whom I don't know, who I don't know by name, people who I am connected to, my ancestors, that was the last word they heard as they were being strung up by a tree. That was the last sense of degradation that they experienced as, you know, some harm was caused to them. I just -- it's just not a part of the fabric of who I am. So out of respect to those who have come before, and the price that they paid to rid themselves of being relegated to that word, I just don't use it.</s>COOPER: We had a fascinating conversation. We'll have more on my interview with Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker tomorrow on 360. "Lee Daniels' The Butler" opens in theaters tomorrow. Just ahead, the custody battle over Veronica may be nearing a breaking point. The little girl whose adoptive parents are in Oklahoma tonight to try to bring their daughter home. The lawyers for both sides are talking. Randi Kaye has new details on those talks ahead.