Beauty and the Beast's Gugu Mbatha-Raw: 'Oprah is my real-life fairy godmother'

By Celia Walden




She’s one of Oprah’s favourite actresses, has the Streep seal of approval and is starring alongside Emma Watson and Ewan McGregor in Beauty and the Beast. Meet Gugu Mbatha-Raw, an Oxford girl done very, very good.

You don’t forget your first phone call from Oprah. At least Gugu Mbatha-Raw won’t. The woman she now calls her ‘fairy godmother’ – but had never met at the time – left her a voicemail four years ago, when Gugu was in a New York cab on her way to JFK.

‘When I listened to the message, it was the weirdest thing,’ she says, succumbing to a fit of giggles. ‘Because at that time I was doing Oprah’s meditation experience with Deepak Chopra, where they email you a short meditation each day. Then suddenly I get this lovely rich voice saying, “Hello, this is Oprah” – and it sounded just like the opening of the meditation app. I thought I’d pressed the wrong button by mistake.’




Gugu spent her childhood "a million miles from Hollywood" in Witney, Oxfordshire

Credit: Art Streiber

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