Rae Dawn Chong drops the N-word as she launches scathing attack on Color Purple co-star Oprah Winfrey

Rae Dawn has since admitted 'regret' over using the racial slur but refused to make a full apology over her attack

Oprah Winfrey's former Color Purple co-star Rae Dawn Chong has launched a scathing attack on the talk show host.

Speaking on internet radio show Matty P's Radio Happy Hour, the Canadian actress, 52, drops the N-word and criticises the media mogul's weight and accuses her of being 'power-hungry'.

Rae, who has mixed Chinese, European and Afro-Canadian heritage, claims Oprah, 59, would have been a 'house n**ger' if she had lived before the emancipation of slaves.

No love lost: Rae Dawn Chong has criticised Oprah Winfrey during a radio show interview

Despite insisting she got on well with Oprah during the making of the Alice Walker film adaptation, her opinion changed when they made Commando, which was released the same year as The Color Purple.

Fans of the film will know Oprah played feisty Sofia in the film, while Rae played Squeak - the girlfriend of Sofia's husband Harpo (William E Pugh).

During the interview, which was first reported by TMZ , Rae swears frequently and uses the N-word twice when discussing Oprah.

Host Matty P is audibly shocked after Rae said: 'If you look at the way [Oprah] looks, she looks like 60 years ago she would have been a house keeper luckily. She would have not been a house n**ger she would have been a field n**ger.'

Screen star: Rae as Squeak in 1985 film The Color Purple

Rae has since attempted to issue an apology over the use of the racial slur in a video for TMZ .

However, she appears to stands by her attack on Oprah, despite claiming she meant to use the N-word as a 'compliment'.



Rae originally said her opinion of Oprah soured when she was invited to Chicago to see her talk show.

She said: ' She was lovely (during The Color Purple). It was after when I starred in Commando with Maria Shriver's husband (Arnold Schwarzengger) is a movie, she was a total biatch (sic).

'She invited me to come to her show and she just wasn't having me. She’s competitive. She didn’t like me. She just wasn’t having me.

'They put me in a real s**tty hotel downtown and my son got sick and at the end of the day, it was just a nightmare.

'I ended up being backstage and she called me on stage and I was like, "You know what, f**k you b**ch." Oprah is all about Oprah.'

Acclaim: Oprah received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Sofia in the movie

Despite her criticism, Rae insists she respects Oprah a lot for breaking barriers because she is a rare African-American women with a great deal of power.

She explained: ' She's amazing, I respect her, I think she's done great things for women of colour and women of a certain size... but do I think she' a good person?'

Rae goes on to criticise Oprah's looks and accuses the talk show host of 'brown-nosing' her way to the top.

She continued: ' The thing that’s really great about Oprah that you cant take away from her is that she's a great brown-noser.

'If you were in a room with her, she would pick the most powerful person in the room and become best friends with them.

'When we worked with her. She was the fat chick, the wannabe cheerleader in school that was the student council president, that was best friends with the principal... The volunteer nurse. She was the fat chick in school that did everything so everybody loved her. That's Oprah. Love me, love me, love me.

'You've got to respect her. No matter how vile she is, she's all about Oprah and she's boring, but you kinda gotta go, "Hello hats off" like, "You’ve done an amazing thing you have actually shifted the DNA of the universe."

'We have to give her props, no matter my personal vibe with her, I gotta stop and say this woman is a miracle and I respect her and I say kudos to you.

'She shifted the DNA in terms of our thinking of a woman of a certain size and a certain shade. I love her for that. I don't care what she's about. I don't care that I know her ins and outs. I just think that she's done a lot and I love her for that.'