When she was around 30 years of age. Oprah read the book the Color Purple. She became obsessed with it, so much so that she would gift it to everybody she could. One day, she heard that Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones were about to make an adaptation for the screen.

Oprah Winfrey wanted nothing else but to be a part of that movie. She started telling everybody that she would be a part of that movie. Shortly after, she got a call from a casting agency. She was casted for a part in a movie called Moon Song.

She asked the agent if he was sure that it was for Moon Song and not for The Color Purple. She told him, she had been praying for the latter. He told her that it was a casting for Moon Song.

She still went to the casting and it was, in fact, for the Color Purple. She was reading for the movie she dreamt about. Not only that, she was reading for the part of Sofia which is a major role in the story.

Sofia is also married to Harpo which is Oprah spelled back- wards. She thought that this is a big sign that she would be in that movie. Months later, she had yet to hear anything from the casting agency, so she called them. She told the agent that she had not heard anything yet.

He told her: “I call you. You don’t call me. Why are you calling me?” He added that they had real actresses that had auditioned for that part and Alfre Woodard had just left his office. He also told Oprah that contrary to her, Alfre was a real actress with experience.

One day as she was running around a track on a cold, rainy day. She started praying. She told God; she could not understand why he had done this to her. She told God that she wanted to be in a space where he could be thankful for the opportunity but she could not.

Not right now. It was too hard. She pleaded with God to help her let it go. She started singing: “I surrender all. I surrender all, all to thy my blessed savior. I surrender all” That song spontaneously came to her.

At first, she could not surrender but she kept on sing and praying and singing and praying more and also crying more and more. Up to the point when she could feel herself letting it go.

She told herself that she was going to be alright. At first, she thought to herself that she was going to be alright, but she would not want to see the movie. She kept praying because she wanted to feel ok to see Alfre Woodard in the movie and be happy about it and bless her in the role she had yearned for.

At the moment, she said to herself that she would be ok watching another actress in the movie. All of sudden some- one came up to her and said that there was a call for her. She got to the phone and started talking. Steven Spielberg was on the line with her. He called to her to give her the role she had prayed for. Her prayers had been answered.