Where this was said
Edith Wrote Oprah: The Full Story
At 56:08 · chapter starts 53:20
The episode's emotional pinnacle arrives when Amy asks Colman about Edith's letter-writing campaign. Throughout the 1990s, whenever Domingo called home to share his struggles as a struggling actor, his mother would calmly inform him she'd written to Oprah again. His response was embarrassment and frustration — 'Will you please stop writing Oprah?' — but Edith was undeterred, writing roughly eight times. [1] — Colman Domingo "While Colman Domingo struggled as a young actor in San Francisco, his mother Edith quietly mailed letters to Oprah Winfrey asking her to he…" 54:28 Then Domingo tells the wider story: his mother also prayed that Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg would one day know her son. Both are now in his life. He was hiking on Oprah's Maui mountain, and the moment hit him — he told her about the letters. Oprah paused on the trail, said 'I don't know if I got the letters, but I know I got the message,' and they walked on hand in hand. [2] — Colman Domingo "I don't know if I got the letters, but I know I got the message." 57:02 After losing both his mother and stepfather in 2006, his friend Melissa told him to put all that love into everything he does. His career since has been, as he calls it, 'my mother's own Wizard of Oz.'
Colman Domingo's mother Edith repeatedly wrote letters to Oprah Winfrey urging her to discover her son while he was a struggling actor in San Francisco in the 1990s.
While Colman Domingo struggled as a young actor in San Francisco, his mother Edith quietly mailed letters to Oprah Winfrey asking her to help her son — about eight times. Years later, hiking on Oprah's Maui property, he finally told her. Oprah stopped, squeezed his hand, and said: 'I don't know if I got the letters, but I know I got the message.'
