UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — There's one big reason Zora Neale Hurston's book has become the ABC movie "Their Eyes Are Watching God" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 4) — Oprah Winfrey.

What Oprah wants, Oprah gets. Even if it takes her years to get it.

"I love this book. Love, love, love this book," Winfrey said. "Other than 'The Color Purple,' I've never loved a book as much."

And Oprah also wanted Academy Award-winner Halle Berry to play Janie Crawford, whose quest for life and love broke the barriers of what was expected of an African-American woman in the South in the 1920s.

"Janie, to me, represents awareness of self and becoming a whole person," Winfrey said. "And being proud of being a whole, full person."

Winfrey gave Berry the book a dozen years ago, the first time Berry appeared on her talk show. "I'm, like, 'Take this. Read it. Because you're Janie.' "

She admits she was "nervous" when it came to calling Berry and asking her to play the part — something she did just days after Berry won the 2002 best-actress Oscar for "Monster's Ball."

"I thought, I better get in now because I know everybody else is going to be calling her,' " Winfrey said. "I know it's a bold move to make to say, 'Congratulations. You looked really nice at the Academy, but could you do that movie I've been talking about for 10 years?' And she said yes. . . She immediately said yes."

At the time, Berry was still excited about becoming the first African-American to win a best-actress Oscar winner, but she said it wasn't like offers to do great films were pouring in.

"I think that was a moment in time that was important, not only for me but for so many people that got inspired by it," Berry said. "But, in all fairness, it was a moment in time. And after about a week, the best thing that happened during that time was Oprah called me up and asked me if I'd play Janie."

Despite her hard-fought status as an A-list film actress, commanding $10 million a movie, Berry said she didn't hesitate to take a TV movie role for a fraction of that.

"Absolutely not. Not when Oprah calls you up and asks you to do it. And not when it's a book that you love and when you know it's a book that Oprah loves. . . . To be part of bringing Zora Neale's work to life is something that will be a part of my legacy. It's not just making movies for the sense of entertaining. It's actually doing something much deeper."

Berry turns in perhaps her finest performance in "Eyes," taking the character through 2 1/2 decades and three husbands on a journey that's full of success, disappointments, emptiness, long-awaited love and terrible tragedy.

"She was struggling to live and discover who she was," Berry said. "She was struggling to discover her own sense of power, her own sexuality, her own sense of purpose. She was struggling to understand why she was in the world.

"And I think that's a theme human beings will struggle with until the end of time."

And the production values on "Their Eyes Were Watching God" are so high it doesn't look like a TV movie. "It's a feature that happens to air on television," said executive producer Kate Forte.

Which was a conscious decision on Winfrey's part.

"My goal was to get as many people to see it as possible and to elevate Zora Neale Hurston in a way," Winfrey said. "Obviously, making the film was important. But if two weeks after the film (airs), Zora Neale Hurston's name is on the best-seller list, we will have won."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com