The Hollywood Reporter - 30.10.2019

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 79 OCTOBER 30, 2019

OZ: ART STREIBER/CBS/SONY PICTURES TELEVISION. D. OZ: GREG DOHERTY/GETTY IMAGES. WINFREY: JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES.

KIMMEL

: RANDY HOLMES/

WALT DISNEY TELEVISION VIA GETTY IMAGES. SANDERS: ANDERS KRUSBERG/SONY PICTURES TELEVISION. SENATE: AP PHOTO/LAUREN VICTORIA BU

RKE.

celebrities on. They’ve taken a risk to come on

my show. For example, Selma Blair has gone

through some difficult times. She has mul-

tiple sclerosis, she just went through a very

difficult stem cell transplant. She’s explain-

ing how she made peace with the fact that she

would never act again. If she’s going to be on

the show, I’m letting her tell her story.

You got a lot criticism for endorsing green coffee

bean extract for weight loss.

I get it. There had been an article written in a

peer-reviewed journal showing pretty spec-

tacular results. Despite that, I wouldn’t talk

about it until we did our own clinical trial. It

showed similar results. Then in that show I

said I don’t care what happens with any pill,

you’re never going to lose weight

long-term if you don’t do the

following things. That’s what the

show actually said.

Was that a wake-up call about lean-

ing into a more clinical approach

and away from the quick-fix ethos?

I remember doing an interview

with Matt Lauer [on To d ay] right

in the middle of all of that. It was

the interview that tamped down

[the criticism] finally. He said,

“Maybe you should just make

it a regular show about blood

pressure.” And I said, “I’ve been

talking about integration of

medicine — about the ability for

patients to be treated like adults

and use alternative approaches,

as long as they are thoughtful about it and

transparent with their doctors — since I was a

resident. The fact that I have a bigger platform

to share that message has changed. But I’m

who I am and I’m not going to pull back from

that. And I would be lying to you if I said I did

not believe some of these therapies had merit.”

Do you believe 100 percent in every single thing

on your show?

No, of course not. I did a show on the afterlife.

I had a neurosurgeon on who had a near-death

experience. People will criticize me for giving

him space on a medical show because that’s

not pure medicine. It’s very entertaining. It

breaks the monotony of talking about blood

pressure every single day. If I were a purist, I

wouldn’t do that. But that’s not who I am. I’m

earnestly curious about what this guy went

through, especially because he was a doctor.

Did you talk to Oprah about the 2014 congressio-

nal hearing where you faced similar criticisms?

We talked a lot with everybody, Oprah and

everybody else was involved in these discus-

sions. And we all decided that if we’re not

going to tell our truth about what we think is

going on, there is no point doing it.

She didn’t say “Why did you do that?”

No, never. She’s the fairest woman I’ve worked

with. She was very clear. She said re-evaluate

what you’re doing, but if you decide you’re

doing the right thing, stick to it. If you think

you’re doing the wrong thing, fix it. I knew I

needed better relations with the medical com-

munity; they should have been on my side.

You had Donald Trump on your show a few

months after he released a letter from his physi-

cian stating that he would be “the healthiest

individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Well, that letter was clearly bogus. I said, “If you

come, do not lead with that letter because it’s

going to be an uncomfortable interview.” So he

came on and as is his classic style, looks at the

audience and before I can start

to badger him about that letter

that he knew was bogus, he said,

“Who here wants to see my real

medical records?” The audience

went crazy.

It seems like 59 is the new 39.

Are you spending more time on

your show on aging?

Yes, near death. (Laughs.) It’s not

that those things are more rele-

vant because I’m older. When we

first started the show, literally,

people couldn’t spell “quinoa.”

I would do these shows, and

early on, those were big break-

throughs. I remember season

one we had a program called

“Just 10.” And the idea was, if

you lose just 10 pounds, then your chance of

diabetes, high blood pressure, high choles-

terol drops dramatically. The major problem

America faces has shifted a bit from the basic,

simple errors of lifestyle to the more compli-

cated problems around loneliness and anxiety.

And because of those you end up with issues

of overeating, not sleeping, the constellation

of issues that arise from that. So I have shifted

the show to always respect those realities.

How long do you see yourself doing the show?

Forever. I love making the show.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Oz faced tough

questions

from a

congressional

committee

in June 2014.

But the past few years have been really rough.

Yes, it has been rough. Judge shows do well.

Dr. Phil and I were spared. Ellen’s done well in

a place where a lot of entertainment shows did

not. But that’s a tribute to her.

If your daughter Daphne’s spinoff, The Good

Dish, goes forward, will you appear on it?

The angle for The Good Dish is to have women

talking about stuff that matters to them while

they’re making something that you can eat.

You don’t want me on a cooking show. They’re

already experienced. I just want to make sure

they jell the right way, that some of the mis-

takes I make don’t get repeated in this setting.

What mistakes do you make?

Like most people, I am thinking about the

next question while [the guest is] answering.

So we used to joke early on that I needed a

prompter to tell me, “Your guest is crying, ask

her why?” (Laughs.) They were making fun of

me. But effectively what I learned is: Give your

guests confidence to go where they think they

need to go. And an extra beat of silence puts

incredible pressure on a guest to tell the truth.

So that lesson allowed me to become a more

impactful interviewer, especially when I have

1,800

Episodes of The

Dr. Oz Show since

Sept. 14, 2009

10

Daytime Emmy

Awards, including

four for Oz as host

2.5M

Viewers for Trump’s

2016 appearance,

64 percent over the

season’s average

WIZARDRY

1 Oz helped Oprah Winfrey celebrate her magazine’s 10th OF OZ

anniversary at a New York event in May 2010. 2 Oz (left) on

Jimmy Kimmel Live! in May — the late night host has credited

Oz’s 2010 appearance on his show with spurring him to lose

weight. 3 Bernie Sanders (right) appeared on the show’s 11th

season premiere in September.

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