If this is Rae Dawn Chong’s idea of praise, we’d hate to see her when she’s feeling critical. In an interview with Matty P’s Radio Happy Hour, a recording of which was obtained by TMZ, the 52-year-old thespian launched into a vicious tirade against Oprah Winfrey, whom she costarred with in The Color Purple, not only calling her “vile,” but also using the N-word to describe the former talk show queen.
According to Chong, who’s the daughter of actor Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong fame, Oprah was “lovely” to her when they worked on Steven Spielberg’s 1985 drama. But the actress claims their relationship soured after Dawn Chong went off to do Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I starred in Commando. And she just wasn’t having me. She’s competitive. She didn’t like me. She just wasn’t having me,” Chong claimed, adding that Winfrey acted like a “total beeyotch.” She told a story about how she was invited on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and alleged that Oprah dissed her by not calling her out on stage.
“You know what? It was like, ‘F—k you b-tch,’” recalled Chong. In the next breath, she added: “All I can say is she is amazing. I respect her. I think she’s done great things for women of color, for women of a certain size,” she added.
But she didn’t stop there, however. After being asked by the deejay to rate Winfrey’s looks, Chong took the bait and gave Oprah a “4” on a scale of 1 to 10 as well as dropping a backhanded compliment.
“The thing that’s really great about Oprah, that you can’t take away from her, is that she’s a great brownnoser,” said Chong. “If you were in a room with her, she will pick the most powerful person and become best friends with them. “When we worked with her, the one thing about Oprah, she was that fat chick that was that cheerleader, or the wannabe cheerleader in school, that was the student council president that was best friends with the principal…she was that fat chick in school that did everything and everybody loved her. That’s Oprah. Love me, love me, love me.”
And the Canadian actress still wasn’t done. “You gotta respect her, no matter how vile she is—’cause ultimately she’s all about Oprah and she’s boring,” she continued. “But aside from that, you gotta kinda go, ‘Hello, hats off, you have done an amazing thing. You have actually shifted the DNA of the universe.”
In one of the interview’s most odious moments, the actress deployed racist language and imagery to demean Winfrey’s looks further.
“If you look at the way she looks, she looks like 60 years ago she would have been a housekeeper, luckily,” said Dawn Chong. “She would not have been a house n——r. She would have been a field n——r.”
And then the final backhanded tribute. “We have to give her props. No matter how much my personal vibe with her, I’ve got to stop and say this woman is a miracle and I respect her and I say kudos to you, and I don’t give two cents about the other parts of it,” Chong said. “She shifted the DNA in terms of our thinking of a woman of a certain size and a certain shade. I love her for that.” Chong’s agent confirmed to E! News that it’s the actress’ voice on the recording, but added, “You should listen to the whole interview.”
He also said his client felt the audio posted online had been taken out of context and heavily edited, a point she also made on Twitter. “Before you judge listen to the [radio] show [in] its entirety,” she tweeted. As well, she released a statement on Youtube, stating that “Out of context, it’s a most unfortunate choice of words, and I regret it. In context, I was actually complimenting Oprah.”
A publicist for Oprah has so far yet to comment.
