Whoopi Goldberg won an Academy Award for her incredible performance as psychic Oda Mae Brown in the 1990 film Ghost.
But initially Whoopi was hesitant to take on the role. Thankfully though, Patrick Swayze – who starred in the film alongside Whoopi and Demi Moore – changed her mind.
In an interview with Dave Karger, author of the upcoming book 50 Oscar Nights, Whoopi recently recalled, “I get a phone call from my agent, Ron Meyer, who says, ‘Patrick Swayze has been hired for this movie. Patrick is not going to do this if you don’t do it. Can you make some time for him and the director to come up?’
“So they flew in, I meet Patrick, and out of the blue, [it’s like] we’re old friends,” she continued.
“About 40 minutes go by and Patrick says, ‘Please do this with me.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And that’s how it happened.”
Whoopi then candidly shared that after that meeting, and even after filming, she was still unsure of the role.
In fact, she didn’t realise how brilliant Ghost was until she finally saw it for the first time with Patrick.
“I said yes, not really knowing what it was going to be. It wasn’t until we all saw the film that we realised what we had.
“He [Patrick] looked over to me and said, ‘Do you remember making this movie?’ I said, ‘I remember some of this, but I don’t remember all of this!’ It was kind of like, ‘Oh my God, this is great!’”
Ghost ended up being nominated for five Oscars, ultimately winning two – including Whoopi’s historic win.
It marked the second time a Black actress won Best Supporting Actress, over 50 years after Hattie McDaniel won in 1940 for Gone with the Wind.
Obviously, it was Whoopi’s flawless performance that earned her the golden statuette but she’s still thankful that Patrick – who sadly died in 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer – convinced her to accept the role.
“He was sexy and sweet and just a terrific human being to me.”
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