Oprah Winfrey Tweets Photo From Set Of 'The Butler'

Lee Daniels is nothing if not a risk taker. It's part of the reason why the "Precious" director had Nicole Kidman pee on Zac Efron in "The Paperboy," and then decided to follow that film up with a massive historical epic starring some of the biggest names in entertainment.

Daniels' next film is "The Butler," which focuses on Eugene Allen, an African-American man who worked as a butler in the White House between 1952 and 1986. Forest Whitaker stars as Allen, with Oprah Winfrey playing his wife and Robin Williams (as Dwight D. Eisenhower), James Marsden (as John F. Kennedy), John Cusack (as Richard M. Nixon), Liev Schreiber (as Lyndon B. Johnson), Alan Rickman (as Ronald Reagan), Jane Fonda (as Nancy Reagan), Minka Kelly (as Jackie Kennedy) and Lenny Kravitz among others rounding out the cast.

Filming on "The Butler" has been going on in New Orleans over the last month, and Winfrey took to her Twitter account on Monday night to update fans about the progress.

For a bigger look at the first photo of Rickman and Fonda in character, click the link above.

Winfrey hasn't acted in a film since appearing in "Beloved" in 1998. (She has lent her voice to a number of animated projects in the interim.) Despite her relative lack of recent experience, Daniels told HuffPost that she has been a dream collaborator.

"She’s a monster, man!" he exclaimed. "She’s bringing it and I’m really proud of her. It’s crazy when you’re working with her because people are obsessed. I got to make sure there are no phones around. But we’re having a good time and I think that she’s able to escape the pressures of being Oprah while on my set, because she’s able to sort of be the character. Which is really nice to witness. I wrote this film for her."

"The Butler" is set for release in 2013.

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