WHOOPI
gory for “Ghost.” She won critical acclaim for her comedic role in 1992's “Sister Act” (and a 1993 sequel) and also had praise for the interracial romance “Corrina, Corrina.”
She had a short-lived, eponymously titled NBC sitcom, did a one-woman show, “Direct From Broadway,” and was the center square on TV's “Hollywood Squares.”
She was the first black woman to host the Academy Awards, and did it four times: in 1994,
'96, '99 and 2002.
She remains one of the few people — and the only black woman — who have won an Emmy, Tony, Oscar and Grammy.
“Just because you won something doesn't make you successful. It just means you won that competition,” Goldberg says with a laugh. “So I'm always looking for stuff to do. I'm always looking for stuff to create. I'm always looking for the thing that I want to be involved in next. So it's a constant drive for information and education for me.”
Goldberg has a new movie, “Nobody's Fool,” released Nov. 2, that opened at No. 3 at the box office. The comedy directed by Tyler Perry and co-starring Tiffany Haddish deals with the practice of “catfishing,” or creating a fake identity to misrepresent yourself — especially online.
“I think it's funny. I had a good time shooting it,” Goldberg says. But she says she doesn't understand how people still are duped by “catfishing.”
“I talked to the guys who do that TV show, ‘Catfishing' [on MTV], and I said to him, ‘Why is this still happening?'” Goldberg says. “You would think it's like the prince from Nigeria who says, ‘send me money and I'm gonna split it with you.'
“But he said, ‘No, no. People who are looking for relationships need some validation. So that when somebody's telling you that you're this or that to them, or you're meaningful to them, it allows people to go with it. Because it feels good.'
“I thought about how sad that was in a way, you know?
But we've sort of gotten away from just one-on-one kinds of stuff. You know, give me a bar — I need to smell you.”
The movie reunites her with Perry, with whom she made the 2010 film “For Colored Girls,” for which she was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress.
“It was great,” she says of
“The important stuff to know [about my show] is it’s all about what lots of us are looking at, and lots of us are thinking.”
— Whoopi Goldberg
working with Perry again. “Much faster because he shot this movie in 10 days. I was only there for a day, but that's what you can do when you own the studio and you're the writer and the producer and the director and the editor. And you can get six cameras because it's your studio, and shoot quickly. It's kind of fantastic, when you think about it.”
She says Perry is interested in making “Sister Act III” with her.
“We've been trying to do ‘Sister Act III' for three years, and Disney has said, ‘No, we think it's a dated piece … and people don't really care to see it,” she says, laughing.
“And I say, ‘Well, actually it's not dated and people want to see it. … And, you know, I have a great idea for what would work for what we're doing. And they said, ‘Well, let us send you what wrote.
“And they did. And I said, ‘Well, this isn't something I want to do. This is a reboot of the movie, you know, with two girls instead of one.' And I've seen how that works — that's not worked particularly well for folks.
“So but now Tyler has said, ‘Well, I think ‘Sister Act III' would be smart and good. And let me see if I can get them to see why this would be a good idea.' So we'll see.”
Goldberg notes that everything else is being rebooted.
“My god, ‘Murphy Brown' is coming back, ‘Roseann' came back. … Disney's now doing all their cartoons live action. …
Why would you want to do
‘Lion King' live?” [Goldberg was the voice of Shenzi the hyena in Disney's original animated feature.]
As for other projects, Goldberg says she's committed to doing a couple more books. She's written seven works of fiction and four of nonfiction, the latest of which is 2015's “Whoopi's Big Book of Relationships: If Someone Says ‘You Complete Me,' RUN!.”
“And maybe I'll do another couple of movies,” she says.
“And then, you know, I have a day job. So that kind of cramps my style a little bit. But, you know, it's nice to have a job.”
So what will Goldberg talk about at her Sands show? She
we do
throws out a few subjects, such as “How we get around this new world that we discover once you sort of realize you are the adult in the room.
“There's nothing worse than that, you know? Because none of us look in the mirror and see the adult. We all see who we are. But other people don't see that.”
Or “trying to keep up with things that don't make sense to me. Like we vote electronically. I don't get it. Makes it easier for people to hack you. I liked it in the old days, when people had to go figure out where your stuff was [to steal it].
“They weren't actually looking for you — they were just looking for stuff to steal. … If somebody ripped you off, they just ripped you off cause you were the one that they found. Your stuff was what they found.
“And now they can figure all your stuff out. It's very specific … they can target you.”
Or aging. “There's certain things that come with growing up that are kind of just, you know, freaky,” she says. “Like somebody is just so happy to see you and they squeeze you, and suddenly you hear [the sound of passing gas]. And you're thinking, ‘My god, do they know that they just let that go?' And then you realize, ‘Ooo! That was me!'
“So it's lots of weird and wonderful stuff like that. You know, going to concerts and thinking everybody looks old, and then you pass a window and you think, ‘Oh! Me, too.' … And then suddenly you think, ‘Oh, where's my wheelchair?' I should be on a walker,” she says, laughing.
“You know … I'm grown up and I don't know if I like it. I know I don't like the alternative …”
“The important stuff to know is it's all about what lots of us are looking at, and lots of us are thinking. And it's not about all the stuff that people want me to do, because I have no interest in it once I leave my job.”
But won't the audience miss Goldberg's take on politics at the show?
“They may be wanting it,” she says. “They they want it. But I tell you, they don't. Because it's all anybody talks about. And I don't want to do that. I want to remember how
think
to talk about other things.
“And what better other thing for me to talk about than me?”
jmoser@mcall.com Twitter @johnjmoser 610-820-6722