Oprah Winfrey’s Interview with Elliot Page Shows Even Professionals Tremble under Pressure

Oprah Winfrey has sat across almost every major celebrity on the planet, including artists like Michael Jackson and Rihanna, and even the former presidents of the United States of America Barack Obama and George Bush.

With a reputation like that, one would assume that a journalist like Winfrey was unshakable. Turns out, she is not. In a recent revelation from Oprah Daily, the media mogul admitted that she was very nervous before her interview with Elliot Page. 

Winfrey Had Interviewed Over 37,000 People By 2011

To put things in perspective, Winfrey has been actively interviewing people since the '80s, but for her sitdown with the Oscar-nominated actor, she was "more nervous than anything." 

It is also noteworthy to mention that this was Page's first public interview since she came out as a transgender person back in December 2020, and Winfrey wanted to "get it right."

Oprah Daily recently made public a conversation between GLAAD Director of transgender representation Nick Adams and Winfrey, where she admitted that she had to do a lot of "homework" before she could sit down with Page. She even talked to Adams for about an hour to prepare. 

For those of you unaware, GLAAD is a non-profit that stands for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. As the name suggests, the media monitoring organization strives to create an accurate portrayal of the LGBT community in mass media. 

Why Was Oprah Nervous Though?

The media mogul's nervousness comes from a very justified place. The conversation was not just the first interview since Page's transition. Instead, it was a global representation of transgender individuals.

According to studies from GLAAD, 80 percent of Americans don't know a transgender person, and so a bulk of their understanding of the trans community is based on media representation, which includes movies, TV shows, and interviews.

To reiterate, Winfrey has been a host to most global icons because she is "The Oprah Winfrey," and as they say, "With great power, comes great responsibility." So she wanted to use her massive reach to give justice to what it meant to be a transgender person. 

Page Cried Tears of Joy

During her interview with Page, he shed tears of joy as he went on record to state that this was the first time that he felt confident in his body. He further explained that the little moments of "There I am, " made him truly happy. 

He also narrated the story of his transition and why he blamed society for making transitioning so challenging. Despite the experience being so freeing in the end, he felt that the whole process was made unnecessarily hard by society. 

He also shared that he felt deep responsibility towards the trans community because not everyone has the same privilege as him.

This was especially true in today's day, and age as trans women of color are still being attacked and killed in a fight for their rights.