• Former President Barack Obama is the most recent guest on Oprah's Apple series The Oprah Conversation.
  • The interview is available to stream now on AppleTV+. It was released the same day as Obama's latest memoir A Promised Land.
  • Appearing to be in the same room for the "sit-down," Oprah and the former president were actually on opposite coasts. Here's how technology made it happen.

On the latest episode of The Oprah Conversation, out now, Oprah and former President Barack Obama appear to be sitting in the same cozy living room, speaking about tidbits from his new memoir, A Promised Land, in front of a crackling fireplace.

Except...they're not really in the same space at all. Believe it or not, the pair conducted this "in-person" interview from opposite coasts: Obama from a studio in Washington, D.C., and Oprah from her home in Santa Barbara. Due to social distancing measures, the interview was arranged remotely—but thanks to modern innovation, you might not have even noticed.

"Through the miracle of technology, we get to be face-to-face in the same room, and we don't have to wear a mask," Oprah says in the episode's casual opening sequence. President Obama adds: "We have a fire going, apparently!"

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Apple
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Apple

As Oprah and Obama speak about how they've each spent their quarantine (activities include watching The Crown and popsicle-making), Obama's background flickers between the cozy living room and a green screen. In a candid—and definitely unrehearsed—moment, Obama initiates a game of virtual footsie with Oprah, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

Facing COVID-related travel difficulties, Oprah tells OprahMag.com that while she would have preferred a real sit-down, safety precautions led her team to get creative. "Nothing compares to being in person, but this was the next best thing," Oprah says.

She was inspired, she says, by the first episode of Drew Barrymore's technologically innovative daytime talk show, which launched in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Guest Cameron Diaz seemed to be sitting in a chair near Barrymore—but she was actually in a studio in Los Angeles.

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And so, Oprah and Obama joined each other in her "living room" in November. For Oprah, it was important that the conversation appear to take place somewhere intimate—though Obama, in the lead-up to the conversation, was dreaming up other possibilities. "We should have done this in outer space," he jokes in the episode. "We could have both been sitting on Neptune, in a bubble!"

To find out how the magic happened, Oprah’s team at Harpo Productions let us in on a few secrets. Obviously, Oprah and President Obama weren't speaking directly to each other, given the miles of distance. Instead, to allow for natural conversation, monitors were carefully placed at the other's eye-line, to make it appear as through they were making eye contact.

During in-person interviews, Oprah says she typically relies on non-verbal cues, which can make virtual chats less natural. But the large monitors, situated below the camera lens, helped her achieve a more organic cadence.

"It was really like President Obama was right in front of me."

"Certainly it's far better being in person, but this was as close as you can get, because you are looking at the other person’s body language. Rather than looking directly into the lens, you're looking at the person's full body, their facial expressions, their movements, everything," Oprah says. "Interviewing President Obama, it was really like he was right in front of me," she adds.

To ensure a sense of total seamlessness, the two rooms' identical furniture was arranged with "extremely precise" measurements. The production teams in D.C. and Santa Barbara used the same cameras, lenses, lighting, and audio equipment, to avoid discrepancies.

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Oprah and President Obama in 2013.

To incorporate the green screen technology, the 44th president was instructed not to wear any green or white garments, and steer clear of shiny shoes, according to the production team. Further, he couldn't drink water from a clear glass, as it would "disappear" before the green screen, making it look like he was sipping water out of nothing. Oprah and Obama sipped from matching tea mugs.

Finally, once the spaces were arranged, Obama and Oprah really did meet in a shared room—a hybrid of real and virtual. "Once the furniture and President were in place, his image, the chair, side table, drinking glass, the floor and even shadows were delivered by fiber line in real time to California, and composited with Ms. Winfrey’s living room, putting them both virtually in the same place," explains a representative from Harpo Productions.

The latest episode of The Oprah Conversation is more than a fascinating interview—it might just be what the future looks like as people everywhere strive to achieve togetherness in a socially distanced world.


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Elena Nicolaou

Elena Nicolaou is the former culture editor at Oprah Daily.