Classic Desert Island Discs - Whoopi Goldberg
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Lauren Laverne here. We're taking our Easter break, so until we're back on air, we're showcasing a few programmes from our archive. As usual, the music's been shortened for rights reasons. This week's guest is the actor and comedian Whoopi Goldberg. Kirsty Young cast her away in 2009. MUSIC PLAYS
My castaway this week is Whoopi Goldberg, a successful actor, comic and producer. She made her name in the colour purple and won her Oscar for Ghost. It was bound to happen.
Who is Whoopi Goldberg and what are her notable achievements?
Even as a child, she used to practise making acceptance speeches. And today, she's one of only a handful of people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony and Emmy Awards. Yet despite her success, she is perhaps an uncomfortable role model. The only person she wants to please, she says, is herself. An observant and quick child, she was also headstrong. She married young, had a child early. Then she wrote her own sketch show. It found its way onto Broadway and her career was launched. I was in the right place at the right time, seen by the right person, she says. And spectacular things happened. Well, they surely did, Flippy Goldberg. You were seen by the right person back in, what was it, the... the 1980s, and that right person was Steven Spielberg.
Is it right? Did you do a sort of private performance for him? Yes.
What was that?
Tell me about that.
I'm intrigued. He asked if I would mind bringing the Broadway show to him, and since it was just me, it felt like it would be all right. So I went, and before I went in, they said to me, now, we want you to do whatever you want to do, whatever piece you want to do, but we also know you do a piece called Blee Tea, which was about the black E.T., And they said, we don't think that would be a good idea. And I said, okay, whatever, you know, that's fine with me.
What was Whoopi Goldberg's experience with her early career and Broadway?
There's nothing in it that's bad. So I do the show. I walk out and I come out onto what I think is just a private stage. And everyone that, for me at the time, you know, like Ashford and Simpson and – Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Those are the people who are sitting in the audience, Friends of Stevens. And so I do my show, and they're very happy. But they say, more, more, more. And I say, well, I have more, but I've been asked not to do this piece. And Stephen said, well, why? I said, they said you would be annoyed because it's really it's about E.T., the black E.T. What would happen if he landed instead of in a very nice neighborhood, if he landed, say, like in Oakland? He said, oh, I want to see it.
I said, are you absolutely sure? Because I don't want to upset you. He said, no. So I did it. And he laughed and laughed and laughed. And I thought, oh, first lesson of the world. Ask the person directly. Don't let someone else tell you that it's not going to work for somebody else. You should ask them.
Were you in any way aware that this was... Some sort of audition? No. And was it? Yeah. Right. It seemed striking to me when I saw The Colour Purple that the role, the list of names went up of the cast at the beginning. And, of course, one has the impression that this is an epic movie. You're about to see something big. Key, though, to the titles coming up, it said, and introducing... Whoopi Goldberg. Now, this was your first ever movie role. That was, for the times, anachronistic. I mean, that was something that people might have done in the movies in the 40s and 50s. Really, you're saying to the audience, here is a fully formed star. You are going to love her. That's quite a pressure for a performer.
Well, fortunately, I didn't see it until much later. But the great thing about that is that you can only have that once in your life. Sure. Because it does mean something. It really does mean something. So finally when I saw the film and saw it come up, I just started quietly just kind of laughing under my breath going, wow.
Alice Walker wrote the book. Is it true that you wrote to Alice Walker when you read the book? Yes.
What did you say in your letter? I said, you know, my name is Whoopi Goldberg, and I'm a performer in San Francisco, California, and this is a great book.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:42
2
Who is Whoopi Goldberg and what are her notable achievements?
0:42–1:56
3
What was Whoopi Goldberg's experience with her early career and Broadway?
1:56–10:52
4
How did Whoopi Goldberg land her iconic role in The Colour Purple?
10:52–34:28