When it comes to interviewing international celebrities, Hilary Barry is no novice. Still, she was wracked with nerves when she interviewed Oprah Winfrey ten years ago, and expects to be again when the pair take the stage in Auckland in December. But, as she tells Emily Simpson, she wouldn't miss it for the world.
Hilary Barry will never forget the beautiful, if slightly awkward, thing that happened the first time she met Oprah Winfrey, in 2015.
She’d been invited to travel to the Oprah Winfrey Network in LA to conduct a generous half-hour interview with the woman who was then – and remains – the world’s biggest media megastar, and she was, understandably, a little tense.
'Kia ora!': Oprah Winfrey shares her message to Hilary Barry - Watch on TVNZ+
When the lights went on and the cameras began to roll, Barry began the interview of a lifetime on an honest note. “I sort of said to Oprah, ‘oh you know, it's lovely to talk to you, I'm very nervous’. And she grabbed my hand and said, ‘No need to be nervous, you've got this. Ask your first question’.
“And so the interview started with Oprah Winfrey holding my hand. And then I asked my second question and my third question... And in my head I'm thinking, oh my god, I'm interviewing Oprah and she's holding my hand. Who's going to let go first?
Barry laughs helplessly at the memory. “I'm thinking, it's Oprah Winfrey! Don't be an idiot. Do not let go. And at about the fourth question she said, ‘I think you've got this. I think I can let go now.’
“It was such a sweet moment, but honestly, I could barely concentrate on what to ask because I'm thinking, is she going to let go? Am I going to let go?”
Cut to 2025 and Barry was going about her business as a media icon in her own right, albeit in a smaller pond, when she got a call from a local publicist who said a Sydney-based promoter was bringing “someone big” to New Zealand. He was looking for a moderator to share the stage with this person, and would Barry be open to talking to him?
“And I said, oh sure. Because I'm nosy. I was Googling, trying to figure out who it might be. I came up with a few names but I never actually thought it would be someone as big as Oprah.”
But Oprah it was. “Of course I immediately I said, yes. Absolutely, I would clear my schedule. I had no hesitation. I just, yeah, I was thrilled.”
Oprah Winfrey means different things to different people. Talk show host turned actress/producer/business woman/philanthropist/podcaster, her ability to sway everything from book sales to elections frequently earns her the title of most influential woman in the world. Having survived a famously challenging upbringing, she was the first African American woman to become a billionaire (in her case, a few times over). She’s given over US$500 million (NZ$866m) to charity. She’s the world’s most famous yo-yo dieter who now, at age 71, looks more vibrant and comfortable in her skin than ever. If you’ve got something to tell the world, as Harry and Meghan Sussex did in 2021, talking to Winfrey on TV will get the attention of 17.1 million viewers.
And, of course, if you’ve made a career, as Barry has, as a presenter and interviewer, Winfrey is simply a master of your craft.
“Like anyone who really enjoys their job, I'm a bit nerdy about it,” says Barry. “And so I look with different eyes at how others interview people, and Oprah is definitely one of the ones who I study. Not that I'm trying to be like Oprah, but I really like her style.”
'Oprah changed broadcasting'
Barry credits Winfrey with dispelling the myth that an interviewer has to play hardball. “As a young person coming into television, I thought that to succeed I had to kick down doors and thrust microphones under people's noses and ask them really confronting questions and be pushy. And for many years I thought that I would never find my place, particularly in television news, because I'm not wired like that. I'm actually really soft.
“And broadcasters like Oprah have taught me that that you can come to a difficult interview with kindness, and actually ask difficult questions in a different way, a softer way, and get a response that’s still worthwhile.”
It’s Winfrey’s refusal to put up a front that Barry believes has been key to her four-decade reign as media queen. “I think people really relate to her, in the sense that she’s so real and authentic. She’s just really open about her life and how she feels about things. She would have been the first big time broadcaster that I ever saw shed a tear on air or, you know, laugh till she cried. When I started broadcasting it was all stiff upper lip and you certainly didn’t talk about your feelings on TV.”
'The most terrifying thing I've ever done'
As for what she and Winfrey will talk about on stage at Auckland’s Civic Theatre in December, Barry says the “nuts and bolts” are yet to be worked out. So far, she has had one call with Winfrey (and some of her team) to plan it. “I had one question for her, which basically was ‘what would you like of me?’
“And Oprah’s response was along the lines of, ‘I just want you to be yourself, and I want us, two grown women, to be on stage, having a conversation about life and where we find ourselves in an uncertain world.’”
So, moving into shallower waters: what will Barry be wearing? “I don’t know,” she says, looking mildly panicked. “I mean, I'll have to find out what Oprah is wearing and just make sure I'm in the background. You know, make sure I don't clash...
“People will have come to see Oprah. I don’t want to get in the way of anything.”
Tickets for the one-off event have already sold out. Will Barry, ten years older and more seasoned than when she last met Winfrey, be nervous this time?
“Yes!” she says. “It's funny because I was talking to my husband, saying ‘oh my gosh, this will be the most terrifying thing I've ever done’.
“And he said, ‘why did you say yes then?’ And I said, ‘because it'll be the most amazing thing I've ever done.’
“I mean, there will be a couple of thousand people there and that adds a level of pressure that I'm not used to.
“Yeah, I will absolutely be nervous, but I'll do my best to keep a lid on it. I don't intend to be a nervous wreck. And I kind of like the feeling of walking into the fear anyway.”
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