If you’re an Oprah Winfrey fan, you must know that she doesn’t just act for the sake of a paycheck. She only takes on a role when a story is really moving. Back in 1998, when she returned to the big screen after ten years for ‘Beloved,’ she poured her heart and soul into the project.
Sadly, the horror-drama, based on Toni Morrison‘s novel of the same name, miserably bombed at the box office. But instead of hiding behind a slick PR team or putting on a fake smile for the cameras, Oprah did something we can totally relate to. Sitting with the heartbreak, she treated herself with a carb-loaded pile of comfort food.
Oprah Winfrey’s Devoted Adaptation vs. The Harsh Reality
Ever since her outstanding debut in Steven Spielberg‘s ‘The Color Purple,’ which earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, Oprah Winfrey has appeared in movies that have deeply touched her.
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She stopped acting after the success of her daytime talk show, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ and only appeared in films that seemed irresistible to her. ‘Beloved,’ directed by Jonathan Demme, became such a story for her in 1998. It was her first theatrical appearance in over a decade.
Set in Ohio, the post-Civil War psychological gothic horror tells the story of a woman, a former slave, who is struggling with her traumas and a haunted family. The movie co-starred Danny Glover and Thandiwe Newton. For Oprah, it wasn’t an easy acting job but was a labor of love.
She adored Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book and took it upon herself to adapt the epic story into a film for the general public. With Demme involved and Oprah’s golden touch in the production, the film was guaranteed to be a success both at the box office and at awards season.
Instead of the expected win, the high-budget drama faced the brutal reality during the opening weekend. Audiences avoided the serious historical movie, condemning it to a disastrous and unexpected theater flop.
When A Killer Doll Beat Winfrey’s Passion Project
When the weekend box office results came out, ‘Beloved’ fell to a miserable fifth place. Not only was it beaten by the whimsical ‘Practical Magic,’ starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, but also by the animated comedy ‘Antz’ and the action film ‘Rush Hour.’
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The slasher film that had the greatest impact on its collection was Ronny Yu’s ‘Bride of Chucky,’ which released the same week. Made on an $80 million budget, it grossed about $22.8 million worldwide. The reality especially hurt Winfrey’s pride.
“I remember hearing that we got beat by something called Chucky,” she recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And I didn’t even know what Chucky was.”
Discovering that a foul-mouthed, murdering doll in ‘Bride of Chucky’ surpassed her deep and meaningful historical film made Oprah fall into “a massive, depressive, macaroni and cheese eating tailspin.”
She coped with the existential heartbreak by ordering thirty pounds of comfort food from her personal chef. And she is quite sure that she didn’t exaggerate the enormous amount of pasta, saying, “I’m not kidding.”
The act of a global billionaire consoling herself with an absurd amount of food reveals the vulnerability every great artist goes through at least in their career. Overall, Oprah’s culinary therapy proves that no matter how much the public criticism stings, one can always cope with a happy meal.
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