Behind-the-Scenes of Oprah Winfrey's Dramatic 'Selma' Moment

Oprah Winfrey during her grueling scene in Selma

Selma, the Golden Globe-nominated drama about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1965 march for voting rights, is filled with horrifying images of racism and brutality that still resonate today.

Among the most painful scenes comes near the beginning of the movie, when a woman named Annie Lee Cooper is brought down by police after protecting a man from an officer’s baton. What makes it even more jarring to modern audiences is the fact that Cooper is played by Oprah Winfrey, one of the most beloved and powerful women in America.

Despite her position, Winfrey was very much a gamer on the day of the shoot, director Ava DuVernay told Yahoo Movies this weekend.

“The day we shot the scene when her character Annie Lee Cooper is attacked was the day that her mentor, her friend Maya Angelou died,” DuVernay revealed. “She came to set that day, and I remember saying to her let’s not do this today, we’ll reschedule to make it work, and she said ‘No, I want to do it for her.’”

Related: ‘Selma’ Cast Talks About Their New York Premiere Protest

In the scene, Cooper whacks an abusive policeman in the head with her purse; the officers respond by throwing her to the ground and pummeling her. It’s difficult to watch, especially given the knowledge that this was just one moment among countless similar attacks.

“It took on an added resonance, to have these troops put their hands on her and really pull her down and assault her,” the director reflected. “I felt like what she was doing was representing the struggles of so many people that were unheard [who] went through that. It was a really poignant day.”

Oprah Winfrey with Selma star David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay

It was also a high stakes one for the stuntmen who played the troopers that manhandled Cooper. ”I don’t know if they’ve handled that valuable of a person,” DuVernay said with a laugh, “but everyone was good.”

Winfrey did far more than her on-screen presence might indicate; as a producer on the film, she was “knee-deep” in production, DuVernay said, working daily on everything from insurance bond calls and permit clearances to casting and on-set decisions.

“She was active and engaged and constantly on the set and constantly moving the waters like Moses; she held up her staff and they parted and we were able to go through and make the movie,” DuVernay said last month in another conversation with Yahoo. “She was truly guiding the process. Physical production is tough, and from all her experience doing the show, she knows how that stuff works."

That said, she kept a rather low profile on set, according to Tessa Thompson, who plays activist Diane Nash in the film.

"The first day that she was on set, she was on set for a long time, and it wasn’t until Ava called her name across that people realized that Oprah was on set,” Thompson said. “She was just preparing and playing Annie Lee Cooper, this unassuming little woman who came to protest."

Watch the trailer for ‘Selma’ below:

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures