Whoopi Goldberg has taken fans behind the scenes of Ghost. In a new interview, the actress shared that star Patrick Swayze was instrumental in having her audition and land her key role in the 1990 movie. Here's how it went down.
Whoopi Goldberg on Patrick Swayze Ghost casting
This week, Goldberg, 64, joined Naomi Campbell on her No Filter YouTube series, where she reflected on Ghost — in which she played psychic "Oda Mae Brown."
"I got that job because of Patrick Swayze," Goldberg revealed to Campbell. She recalled the story of a friend first telling her that "every Black woman and her mother" was auditioning for the psychic part.
But when Goldberg contacted her agent, she was informed, "They don't want you... They think that your persona — that Whoopi — is too big and will take people out of the movie."
"It hurt my feelings a little bit, I'm not gonna lie," she added. But shortly after, Whoopi received another call from her agent. "You remember that movie that they didn't want you for? Well, the director and the actor want to come to wherever you are and see if there's any way to do this with you," Goldberg recalled her agent saying.
Patrick Swayze wanted Whoopi Goldberg cast in Ghost
The Ghost star, of course, was Patrick Swayze. "Patrick wanted to know why they hadn't come to you [with the part]," Goldberg's agent told her. "They told him that they thought you would take people out of the movie."
Swayze took serious issue with the unfair treatment. "Patrick said, 'I'm not saying yes to this piece until we know that she's not the right person, because this is ridiculous. She's perfect'," Goldberg explained.
"I'd never met him, but he was a fan," she added. "As soon as Patrick and I looked at each other, we started laughing," Goldberg recalled upon meeting the late Swayze, developing instant chemistry.
Ghost went on to become a box office hit in 1990 and is still remembered as one of both Swayze's and Goldberg's best films. For more, see 8 Secrets & Facts About Ghost here.
She's all grown up!
