Relentless in asking me to do it is because i wanted the tapestry the depth, the broadness of that communication between a husband and a wife and particularly a middleclass black family to be seen by the rest of the world. Its something we dont see very often and i think that women have been the backbone regardless of race during that period for a number of reasons and i wanted to be able to show that in that one character. Rose lee daniels the butler for the hour. Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following give a little bit give a little bit of my life for you nows the time when we need to share so send a smile were on our way back home rose additional funding provided by these funders and by bloomberg, a provider of news and multimedia Information Services worldwide. From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose you gene allen was born on a virginia plantation in 1919 he worked in a country club until 1952. He then found a job as be a butler in the white house. He ended up spending 34 years there. He served under eight president s from harry truman to ronald reagan. He saw some of the pivotal events in u. S. History the cuban missile crisis, the freedom rides, the assassinations of j. F. K. And Martin Luther king, jr. , the vietnam war and watergate. His life, wrote president obama after allens death in 2010, represented an important part of the american story. Now a new movie has been made inspired by eugene allens story. Here is the trailer for lee daniels the butler. Are you political mr. Gaines . No, sir. Good. We have no tolerance for politics at the white house. Im cecil gaines. Im the new butler. You hear nothing, you say nothing. You only serve. You know he got that job himself . The white house called him, he didnt call the white house. I want to hear all the stories. I dont know how many stories youre going to hear because they done swore them to some kind of secret code. Did you go to an allcolored school, cecil . I didnt go to school, mr. President , i grew up on the cotton farm. Dont you lose your temp we are that man. Its his world, we just live in it. About time you go ahead. You looking for some help . You done broke our window, you done stole our food and now youre asking for a job. I know how to serve. They said this new white boys smooth. Im thrilled to be working with all of you over the next four years. Dr. King, what did your daddy do . He was a butler. The black domestic plays an Important Role in our history. Something special is going on here. Mr. President . I know your son is a freedom rider. Turn the bus i never understood what you all really went through. Youve changed my heart. This theres this whole black Power Movement going on. I give you the green light to gut those sons of bitches. Theyre going to kill you. You need to go. What . Get the hell out of my house. Sorry, mr. Butler, i didnt mean to make fun of your hero. Everything you are and everything sufficient because of that butler. Rose joining me now is lee daniels who directed the movie, danny strong who wrote the script and two of the films stars, Forest Whitaker who plays the butler and Oprah Winfrey who plays his wife gloria. Welcome one and all. Thank you. Rose im pleased to have you here. You, sir, are at your creative best. Congratulations. Thank you. Rose you, magnificent. Thank you, sir. Rose but you, sir, are just brilliant. This is an extraordinary performance over a span of years to capture this person, these ideas, all that you have done was really an extraordinary achievement. Thank you. Thank you for that compliment, thats very nice. Thank you. Rose how difficult was it for you . It was a challenge. It was one of the most challenging roles i ever played. You know, i think because of the sort of being able to communicate without words, you know . The process of going through all these years and the aging process. Trying to carry these experiences that were painted in the script by danny and lee inside of myself so that you could feel them and know them and theyd be a part of me. And then understanding the history so i could take that tapestry and pull it together. But its a love story, so i guess trying to navigate the feeling that i had for my wife. Hello. laughter and trying to make my life not to make her upset. It challenged us and it challenged me and my son. Yeah, but it was about that. Because its also for me a love story. A love story through the eyes of this man and one of the reasons i said yes to lee after he was relentless in asking me to do it is because i wanted the tapestry, the depth, the broadness of that communication between a husband and a wife and particularly a middleclass black family to be seen by the rest of the world. Its something we dont see very often and i think that women have been the backbone. You know, regardless of race during that period for a number of reasons and i wanted to be able to show that in that one character. Rose and what did you hope to bring in this script . What story . I wanted to tell the history of the Civil Rights Movement. It seems to me that that movement has not been properly told in hollywood. And you have world war ii, youve got the holocaust. These are extremely famous, theyre part of our National Consciousness and a lot of that have is because of movies and t. V. Shows that have been made about them. There havent been that many movies made about the Civil Rights Movement and its a shame because its one of the most important dynamic and dramatic events of the 20th century. It deserves to have many movies made about it. For me i just really wanted to try and push that into the National Consciousness the way that these other events have been dramatized. Rose the scope of history is told in intimate personal stories. Exactly. Exactly. Thats the joy of doing the butler. Because the butler is in the white house and you can see him in meetings where decisions that are going to affect the entire nation are being made and through his family you see how those decisions are played out in the lives of Everyday Americans so it seemed like if we could make that work it could be a powerful film. Rose who first saw the possibilities of this as a movie . Lars us skind, amy pass squall from sewn fwhoi told lars iskind and spiderman and so she told lars to option it and she since passed and danny was brought aboard and then i was brought aboard and it was between me and Steven Spielberg, can you believe it, charlie . Rose so steven said im busy . I dont know what happened. Rose this is what they do in hollywood. If steven is busy laughter i wouldnt mind taking second place for that. laughter very good. Rose stevens busy, so go to lee. So they go to you. Whats the challenge . The challenge is trying to get the budget to meet this epic story. Because the studios will only give African American dramas a specific amount of money and dannys script spans decades and so thats a lot of money. So we were going to do it. The movie was green lit, we were going do it for a budget and i couldnt cram it into the budget that the film deserved. So it was frustrating and oprah i said oprah, were green lit with the studio. Were doing a movie. I dont know. I dont know about this. And solarz iskind passed away. I didnt get you would 6 believe you would get money for this because i had done the great debaters. What he is saying is really true. Its very difficult to get a black drama green lit in hollywood because the theory is black dramas dont work. Lara passed away. She had cancer. And on her deathbed, literally, she was raising money for film. Literally on her deathbed. And she hadnt raised money before because she was a studio girl. She went from studio to studio. She said lee, how do you raise money . I said come with me, sister. Rose been there; done that. So we went from one investor to the next and i think that after her death a lot of the investors that we went to felt guilty and rose to the occasion and and if not guilt a sense of respect for her exactly. I would say respect. And love. Oy, this is republics show. Rose what charlie meant to say. She left enough money in her film to keep her company open so this could get made . Isnt that amazing . Its so interesting, guys, we had a screening in new york last night recently, and what was interesting to me, when you were talking about her i really do believe this so dont call me cuckoo, i do believe that all of us are energy and even when you pass on youre energy. Something that you were talking about her last night, i thought lara is all up in this and she is going to be ushering this film in a way that we really cant imagine. So i think the spirit of her has been throughout this film and were going to fill it fill the spirit of her, really feel the spirit of her once this is released. I think shes all in it. Rose so you got the money. You got the script. Yes. Rose youve got to get actors. Yes. Rose so Forest Whitaker came to you instantly . With forest, you know with forest this is so beautiful. And its a testament to who he is as a person and how he and an oscar winner. Rose i was going to say. Thank you. He came in to audition. And i was humiliated asking him to audition. I said dude, you know, you are who you are but i have to see how the. Rose youre idi amin. Yes, lets see if idi amin and oprah have chemistry. Rose the two of them came in and it was magic and i grabbed oprah and i said this is it. He must have thought what the hell is going on . And i grabbed him and said yeah, we were in a little suite at the chateaux and after we had done a few lines together and i think we did we rehearsed the birthday scene. And lee pulled me into the kitchen and he goes i think hes the one. Yes laughter i go i so want to work with forest i had wanted to work with forest before. Did you know this, charlie, that when he was nominated for i think you would already been nominated when i called you, right . Yes. Rose for last king of scotland. I just called him up in that way that, gee, i would love to meet that person. Id seen last king of otland. And i called him up and said i just admire you so and i would love to meet you and your family and could you all please would you like me to have a party and would you come to my house and bring your trends so that we could celebrate you whether you win the oscar or not . I also met lee this that way. I saw precious and i called lee laughter i called lee i got lees cell phone number and i called lee and i said hi, lee, this is Oprah Winfrey. And he goes im at the sun dance film festival, we just won the best award. I said why is your damn cell phone on . So i love calling up people. Rose i want to meet you. I want to celebrate you. I call him just to say i want to celebrate you. Charlie, the reason why i answered, because it said unknown. And we talked about this the first time you interviewed me. Unknown meant thats money. So i thought thats possible money for my next movie. Hello . As im walking up the stage to get my award. Crazy. Rose if it said oprah you would have answered it, too. I dont know. I dont know if i would have believed it. I would have thought it was a prank or something. Rose did you have any sense of the power of the script and the story or did you clearly understand that if we got this right we could have something here that transcends movies and transcends i think i felt that way when i read the scrip. You know, i the motion of the movie, the historical moments that were so reflected in our emotions because theyre so connected to whats going on. I thought if we could accomplish that, if he could accomplish that then we could do Something Special so i started just like bearing down on it as an artist to try to understand how to convey that. Rose even though this is a script, did you go in search of eugene allen . I did. I talked to charles allen. I talked to people who worked with him. I had some confidential conversations with some butlers. I talked to a number of individuals all the way through and i started working with butler coaches to understand just the mentality and the philosophy behind it. I spoke to to some civil rights leaders that i wanted to just pick their mind a bit about what they were thinking and then started thinking about my own past and my grandparents and my great grandfather because i knew my great grandfather and my father, they lived to very old ages in their 90s both of them. So i was just remembering some of the incidents that i lived in in my life, too, and started to combine these things together to make something true. Rose how about gloria for you . Capturing well, i was a little nervous about this because i hadnt picked up that instrument in 15 years. And i had just rose an acting instrument . The acting instrument. I put hit in the corner and said well, those days are gone, and wasnt that nice . And really. Yes rose its amazing to think of. Yes, i had. Thats incomprehensible well, i had. Because ied that day job that sort of took over my life. And it was always difficult to get someone to say yes, i can do the movie but can you do it between july 12 and august 14 because i have to be back for the september start of a new season. So i just threat go and also my disappointment over beloved and when i started talking to lee about this he said you need to come back, you need to act. He sent me several scripts. laughter which i shall not mention. Some rose why not . laughter i sent her a script about a serial killer . I was going to play the serial killer. Not only am i not going to i said im going to burn this script and do not send me anything like this again and if you do that your karma is going to change. Rose hay, dude, what are you doing . What are you doing. But who would have been she would have he said i want people to lose the oprah thing. Well, i dont have to go all the way to being a serial killer to lose the oprah thing. Hello. Theres some character in between can you believe it . So i was a little nervous. I called he suggested that i call susan batson, the acting coach. Rose right. She came and had a session with me because i was saying rose this is before you decided . This is before i decided and she came and i had a session with her and she in 20 minutes i was exposing all of my stuff and she said you still have it. You have to vulnerability, you have to spaces where you can go inside, you can reach and you can find gloria. You have to do the work to do it. Because i started out saying to her its just a small role. Its a small role and theres no such thing as a small role yeah, no such thing as a small role. And she to me represents shes a composite of that era. You know the night we screened we had a screening and none of us said charles allen, the son of eugene allen, had not seen the film before. And he stands up at the screening at the end and because gayle is hosting this screening and she says mr. Charles allen is here, tell us what you thought . And he stands up and the first thing he says well, you threw my mother under the bus. And then we all go, oh, lord, whats he going to say . He actually liked the film. He loves it. And i said well, i certainly took some liberties with your mother. His mother is smoked a couple packs of pal mall everyday and i dont think she wasnt a drinker, not to that extent and certainly wasnt tiptoing out with the next door neighbor because the next door neighbor wasnt terence howard. So we took some liberties because what she loved to do was watch the price is right and watched the soap operas. So rose you got that. You got that. Rose so you finally said yes because something because rose because this was a busy time in your life. Own i was trying to build a network and i said to lee no, no no. And finally said yes because, you know, my entire life ive been a student of the history. When i was a young girl i knew all of Langston Hughs poems. I knew all of and thats a lot of poems. All the major poems i knew and i knew the entire gods trombones and i knew sojournny truth speeches and Fanny Lou Hamer speeches so i was an orator and the idea of knowing who you are for me had been the reason i can sit in board rooms and be the only woman and be the only black because it reminds me of that line from a maya angelou poem where she says i come as one but i stand as 10,000. I stand as 10,000 because i know where i come from. I know the path that was paved for me. I know crown that i know wear holds the jewels that all of those people before me prepared for me. And i know that theres an entire generation that doesnt understand that. They dont have the context for who they are and how they got to be who they are. As, you know, African Americans, young African Americans. And also i just wanted to offer that story to people in a way this they could see the greater picture rose you saw something you had to do in the end . After all this, ive got to do this . Yes, and, you know, my whole work is about opening the heart space for people and i said, wow i think heres an opportunity that you can show people something in a way that they can see the best of themselves. Yeah. Rose what was the hardest part for this . Youve got your cast now. Youve got everything in place. Really making sure that everything is from the shoes to the makeup to the their accent to their head movements, everything is honest. That everything is really, really honest and keeping it honest and thats a hard thats the hard hes a truth seeker. May i say this about him . He is the kind of director i mean, thats why every actor that ever works with him loves him. Because he will not let you get away with a split second of anything less than the truth. He literally rose has to be authentic and true . Not only truth. Not only truth. He will call you over to the monitor this happened to me. Call you over to the monitor and say look at that. See where shes leaning in right there . Thats good. Thats good. See where she took a breath. Id say yeah. Hed say drop the breath. Too much drama. Rose this is also about family. A lot about family. Tell me a little bit about that. I think its exemplifyed in the father son relationship. Our relationship is more about the absence and my not being there for us and it causes a lot of problems for her and for the family. But with my son, im trying so desperately to keep my family together and to let my family have all the things they need and desire. And its my quest for my son to live a better life than what i did. And he he makes a decision to do a pursuit of trying to pursue a great life, too. But in his mind doing that he has to confront what he considers the demons of the country or the demons of