Whoopi Goldberg

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand nine.

Presenter0:28

My castaway this week is Whoopi Goldberg, a successful actor, comic and producer, she made her name in the color purple and won her Oscar for Ghost.

Presenter0:37

It was bound to happen. Even as a child she used to practise making acceptance speeches, and to day she's one of only a handful of people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, and Emmy awards.

Presenter0:48

Yet despite her success, she is perhaps an uncomfortable role model. The only person she wants to please, she says, is herself.

Presenter0:55

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 on to Broadway, and her career was launched.

Presenter1:05

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, Whoopi Goldberg. Um uh you were seen by the right person back in what was it, the

Whoopi Goldberg1:12

Go back.

Presenter1:16

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.

Whoopi Goldberg1:23

Is that

Whoopi Goldberg1:24

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 Ble T, which was about the Black E. T.

Whoopi Goldberg1:45

And they said, We don't think that would be a good idea.

Whoopi Goldberg1:49

And I said, Okay, whatever you, you know, that's fine with me. There's nothing in it that's bad.

Whoopi Goldberg1:54

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.

Whoopi Goldberg2:26

And Stephen said, But 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.

Presenter2:56

Hmm.

Whoopi Goldberg2:56

Don't let someone else tell you that it's not going to work for somebody else. You should ask them.

Presenter3:01

Were you in any way aware that this was?

Presenter3:03

Some sort of audition? No.

Whoopi Goldberg3:03

And I think that's a good idea.

Whoopi Goldberg3:05

No, that

Whoopi Goldberg3:06

Yeah.

Presenter3:07

Right. It seemed um striking to me when I saw uh 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.

Whoopi Goldberg3:16

Uh

Presenter3:22

Key though to the titles coming up, it said and introducing Whoopee 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 forties and fifties. Really you're saying to the audience, Here is a fully formed star. You are going to love her.

Whoopi Goldberg3:26

Yeah.

Presenter3:41

That's quite a pressure on the performer.

Whoopi Goldberg3:42

F1 back.

Whoopi Goldberg3:43

Well, fortunately, I didn't see it till much later.

Whoopi Goldberg3:48

But the great thing about that is that it you can only have that once in your life.'Cause it does mean something. It really does mean something. So finally when I saw the film and saw it come up, I just started l quietly, just kind of laughing under my breath, going,

Presenter4:05

Alice Walker wrote the book. Is it true that you wrote to Alice Walker when you

Whoopi Goldberg4:07

Travel

Whoopi Goldberg4:08

Yeah, when you rub

Presenter4:09

Uh

Whoopi Goldberg4:09

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. And if uh they ever make a movie, I'd like to be, you know, in it. I'd like to play the dirt. That's how much I like this. And so I sent her my resume and stuff. And a couple of months later, I had been invited to New York.

Whoopi Goldberg4:33

And I stayed with my mom. And she said, Oh, so some mail came for you. She handed me a purple envelope.

Whoopi Goldberg4:41

That said Alice Walker on it. And I opened it up and it basically said, Dear Whoopee, I live in San Francisco. I know your work. I already sent your stuff to them.

Whoopi Goldberg4:51

Wow, wow Now, no matter what it doesn't matter if anything happens.

Whoopi Goldberg4:57

She sent my stuff out. That's pretty good.

Presenter4:59

Tell me about your first piece of music Nancy. What have you chosen?

Whoopi Goldberg5:01

The first piece is Bill Withers. I love Bill Withers and Lovely Day. And I love Lovely Day because it's just a positive song.

Presenter5:02

Yeah.

Speaker 35:11

Someone else instead of me

Speaker 35:15

Always seems to know the way.

Speaker 35:20

Then I look at you.

Speaker 35:23

And the world's all right with me.

Speaker 35:29

Just one look at you.

Speaker 35:33

And I know it's gonna be

Speaker 35:38

I love it, yeah.

Presenter5:40

Bill Withers and Lovely Day. You were just blissed out. I was. I love it. It was a water.

Whoopi Goldberg5:43

I was. I loved it. It was washing over you with its loveliness. You know, it's a I remember when my kids were small, you know, that's a song that I would whisper to them when they were babies. Now they're grown people and I whisper other things to them.

Presenter5:45

Loveliness.

Whoopi Goldberg5:57

But this is a song that they they loved as well.

Presenter6:00

What about when you were small then? You were born in nineteen fifty five.

Whoopi Goldberg6:02

Yeah.

Presenter6:03

Just a couple of weeks before Rosa Parks sat on the bus.

Whoopi Goldberg6:07

Yeah.

Presenter6:07

It's really interesting that your life has sort of been lived in parallel with all of those incredibly significant moments in your civil rights history.

Whoopi Goldberg6:11

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg6:14

Yeah. And also my other favorite moment of nineteen fifty five, the opening of Disneyland. You know, Disneyland and Mickey Mouse and I were hanging out in our fifty third year.

Presenter6:26

You're looking better than he is, I can't believe it.

Whoopi Goldberg6:28

I think so.

Presenter6:29

Um, so the early days then, you were brought up in uh Manhattan, right in the centre of where it was all happening, and you have a brother, Clyde.

Whoopi Goldberg6:34

Uh-huh.

Whoopi Goldberg6:35

I

Whoopi Goldberg6:37

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg6:39

My big brother Claude, who when he walks down the street, has his own theme music. He's cool as hell. He's the coolest person I know.

Presenter6:48

And your mother and not your father, your father lost.

Whoopi Goldberg6:50

No, not my dad, but my mom.

Presenter6:52

And your was your dad a was he a a minister or a preacher? Was he yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg6:55

Yeah, he went through many, many incarnations. He was many, many things. He was many things. And your mother a strong woman. Pretty strong, you know, very sensitive and really brilliant, but no place for her at the time.

Whoopi Goldberg7:10

You know, no place for her to be. So she went from being a practical nurse to being a head start teacher to getting her master's in early childhood education. Was it a tough upbringing? I mean, was the neighborhood tough up? No, people.

Whoopi Goldberg7:27

Every time I talk about it, I always laugh because people say, Young, you came up to degradation of it. I actually didn't. I came up in a really good neighborhood that was not wealthy. It was a poor neighborhood. You know, we lived in a what you call the council houses.

Presenter7:43

Yeah, guess what?

Whoopi Goldberg7:44

You know, and we call them the projects. And in New York, no one ever said, Oh, you poor, poor children. You know, Christmas and Hanukkah and all those holidays came and we got gifts. I don't know how she did it, but she did it. You know my mother was very practical, is very practical. And her response to me on the big questions of the teenage years and the adult years.

Whoopi Goldberg8:09

Can you live with your choice?

Whoopi Goldberg8:11

If you can't live with your choice, if you're concerned other people aren't going to like you because of your choice, then it's not the choice that you want to make.

Whoopi Goldberg8:19

If you don't care if other people like you and your choice.

Whoopi Goldberg8:25

Then you'll be alright.

Presenter8:26

And when your mother got her masters, then when was that is was that decades later? Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg8:29

That day.

Whoopi Goldberg8:30

Yeah, yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg8:32

Probably early 90s.

Presenter8:33

That must have been an incredibly proud moment f for you and a kind of reversal.

Whoopi Goldberg8:36

What she didn't tell me.

Whoopi Goldberg8:39

My mother, you know, she's one of those in the the old school parents that you exist only on a need to know basis. Like you'd say, How old are you? and she'd say, Why do you need to know?

Presenter8:49

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg8:49

So how did you find out she got her Masters?

Whoopi Goldberg8:51

I heard a rumor.

Whoopi Goldberg8:54

and called her.

Whoopi Goldberg8:55

And said, I heard that you just graduated from uh NYU with a master's degree.

Whoopi Goldberg9:01

She said, Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg9:03

Were you going to tell me? She said, Yeah. When you needed to know, I would have let you know. I mean, she's like that.

Presenter9:09

Let's take a break for some music. What about uh disc number two? What have we got?

Whoopi Goldberg9:12

Well, Van Morrison, you know, I just love him. And this is another song that is about positiveness.

Speaker 49:22

Jackie Wilson said, Every drinking tea. Kinda love your life, knock me off my feet. Let alone.

Speaker 49:31

Oh let it all hit.

Speaker 49:35

Yeah, you know, I'm so wide up

Speaker 49:39

Don't need no coffee in the apartment

Speaker 49:42

Let it all be

Speaker 49:45

And then it all hit down.

Speaker 49:47

What's this?

Presenter9:51

Van Morrison and Jackie Wilson said, Whoopi Gilberg, you or you were dyslexic, you are dyslexic. I suppose you never stopped being dyslexic. No, but you're always dyslexic. But at school, I imagine that made things incredibly difficult.

Whoopi Goldberg9:56

Coxy.

Whoopi Goldberg9:57

No, yes, always.

Whoopi Goldberg10:02

Well, they assumed I was being lazy because I was I was so smart in other ways. There were things I could do and I could remember things and so they knew I wasn't dumb.

Presenter10:14

Hmm.

Whoopi Goldberg10:15

They just thought I was being lazy.

Presenter10:16

And you didn't you didn't go to senior school at all, did you?

Whoopi Goldberg10:19

But no, no, I hated school.

Presenter10:21

And your mum was fine with that?

Whoopi Goldberg10:22

Well, she said you better find something else to do. So, what did you do when you were twelve?

Presenter10:26

What do

Presenter10:27

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg10:27

In those days you could go to uh the Museum of Modern History and they gave lectures, daily lectures. And as long as I got a daily lecture there or I went to the uh New York Public Library, as long as I was going places where learning was occurring, she was fine. I was very lucky to have a mother who got it. She understood something was different about me.

Presenter10:53

So you had this kind of bespoke home schooling in in essence yourself.

Whoopi Goldberg10:56

City schooling, I think.

Presenter10:59

Okay, yeah. And you were shy?

Whoopi Goldberg11:01

Yes. Really?

Whoopi Goldberg11:03

I know it's shocking.

Presenter11:04

It well, it just seems unlikely, that's all.

Whoopi Goldberg11:06

I know, yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg11:08

I just I'm I'm

Whoopi Goldberg11:11

never comfortable in in big crowds'cause I don't know

Whoopi Goldberg11:16

I'm not I don't have a big spectrum of conversation.

Whoopi Goldberg11:21

But

Presenter11:21

But you talk very easily, you talk very fluidly, you don't seem to trip on your words or your thoughts.

Whoopi Goldberg11:26

No, but I'm if I'm in a group of people, I don't have much to say.

Presenter11:32

I'm wondering then about the woman I saw presenting the Oscars a few years ago, because that guy

Whoopi Goldberg11:35

That's Whoopi Goldberg, yeah. She can do anything. She can talk to anybody. But there is a

Whoopi Goldberg11:43

An aspect which is sort of the the me that that nobody knows. The aspect of myself which uh

Whoopi Goldberg11:52

isn't as comfortable with all of that.

Whoopi Goldberg11:55

So I just let Whoopi do the work.

Presenter11:57

Let's hear your next track then.

Whoopi Goldberg11:59

Nusfrat Alikan. I first heard him on a a Peter Gabriel World album, and there was this voice on it that just

Whoopi Goldberg12:11

I don't want to sound too like s you know silly but

Whoopi Goldberg12:17

it just filled me with light, you know, and I knew that somehow this man or this voice was channeling the spirit and the spirit of whatever God you believe in. When this man sings,

Whoopi Goldberg12:34

I just know that, you know, there's something greater.

Whoopi Goldberg12:39

Than me in the world. So that's why I love it. And the piece is called Shamhun Doha, I think it's pronounced. And I love it.

Speaker 413:13

Today

Presenter13:16

Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan and Shamis Abdowah.

Presenter13:19

Tell me, Whoopi Goldberg, about the drugs. When did the drugs happen? Because they were in your teenage years. Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg13:25

Well, they happened or

Whoopi Goldberg13:27

They happened a lot and often through a lot of years. You know, I know it's really not PC to say, but, you know, at the time when I was growing up, it was perfectly great. Experimenting with things like LSD and, you know, talking about mind expansion, and heroin was a drug that took you to places that you'd never been before. It was, for me, a really good learning time. I don't recommend it to anybody because the rough part about it is it wants to stay with you, you know, and you want it to because you find that it's easier to live outside of life. And for me, I actually like living.

Whoopi Goldberg14:14

So it really came down to okay.

Whoopi Goldberg14:17

If you go down this path and stay here.

Presenter14:19

Um

Whoopi Goldberg14:20

Pretty much you're gonna die. It's a given fact. And, you know, your teeth are gonna fall out.

Whoopi Goldberg14:27

Couldn't be on the street, probably living the life of a prostitute and

Whoopi Goldberg14:31

Or, if you go this way

Whoopi Goldberg14:34

and you find other things that give you the same feeling.

Whoopi Goldberg14:38

A good piece of music.

Whoopi Goldberg14:41

Nice person on occasion, you might live a little longer.

Whoopi Goldberg14:46

And so I experimented, and I enjoyed my time.

Whoopi Goldberg14:52

in the experimental stage and then I, you know, cleaned up.

Whoopi Goldberg14:56

Got married, had a baby, and that sort of put the combosh on getting getting high anymore. And I don't drink. You know, I've I've now become ex incredibly boring.

Whoopi Goldberg15:07

There's only one drug that scares me, and that's an opium.

Whoopi Goldberg15:12

You know, opium is one of those drugs that if I ever fell into it again, I'd never come out. But, you know, it's hard to be high in the streets now.

Whoopi Goldberg15:23

Because I'm I've been Whoopy Goldberg for so long that I think drooling when somebody wants an autograph probably isn't the most attractive thing. It's not a g it's not a good look. Probably not. Not for me at this late stage.

Presenter15:34

Uh you talked here about uh getting married and having a child. You did that very young.

Whoopi Goldberg15:37

That

Presenter15:38

Yeah, eighteen.

Presenter15:39

Not very young. Not very young. I thought it was. I'd read it was younger than that. Of course, she was thinking.

Whoopi Goldberg15:40

Not very young.

Whoopi Goldberg15:42

You know, my daughter had her child young. How young was she? She was fourteen when she got pregnant and fifteen when she had the baby.

Whoopi Goldberg15:50

Was that tricky?

Whoopi Goldberg15:52

No, not if you believe in choice. Then that was the choice she made and my mom and I said, you know, then we'll help you do this And now the kid's nineteen, just like her mom, funny, is not did not get pregnant, thank you. And uh she got uh Alex, my daughter got married and had been married for like ten or twelve years and had two more kids and

Whoopi Goldberg16:16

Yeah.

Presenter16:16

China

Whoopi Goldberg16:16

Dong?

Presenter16:16

So you were a grandmother in your thirties? Yeah. Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg16:19

Uh

Presenter16:19

Uh Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg16:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Presenter16:20

How did that sit? I mean, with your sense of self-worth.

Whoopi Goldberg16:22

Well, I was good looking. I have to say, I was a good looking grandma. I was the I was a hottie.

Whoopi Goldberg16:28

Let's take a break for another piece of music. What have you chosen? Actually, it's kind of funny, apropos of what we're talking about. Judy Collins, who knows where the time goes. It just is a reminder. You only get a specific amount of time. You don't know when or how much, but it's finite, and you've got to pay attention. And that's what this song is about: paying attention.

Speaker 416:52

Across the morning sky

Speaker 416:57

All the birds are leaving.

Speaker 417:08

Ah, how can they know?

Speaker 417:12

It's time for them to go.

Presenter17:20

Judy Collins, and who knows where the time goes. Uh Whoopi Gilberg, I know what we get from you performing. You know, we love to watch you we love to have you make us laugh and to entertain us and engage us. What do you get from performing?

Whoopi Goldberg17:35

I get life.

Whoopi Goldberg17:37

I get life from performing.

Whoopi Goldberg17:39

It's like a battery.

Whoopi Goldberg17:42

I I feel like when I when I'm working I'm plugged in and I'm charged and I'm

Whoopi Goldberg17:47

attuned to everything that's around me.

Presenter17:50

There's huge expectation, of course, on a star when they walk into a room, any room, whether it's, you know, a restaurant where you've got to be nice to the waiter,'cause the waiter's meeting Whoopi Goldberg that day. That's what he's gonna go home and tell his wife.

Whoopi Goldberg17:57

Because the weight

Whoopi Goldberg17:58

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg18:00

Yeah, his wife.

Presenter18:01

So

Whoopi Goldberg18:02

As you come out of your house, you have to be whooping over. Hard work? Um, sometimes, from time to time, it can be very difficult because I can be cranky.

Whoopi Goldberg18:12

You know. And then you become that whoopy Goldberg who gave me a bad tip.

Presenter18:15

Or who was leaked to me or I have

Whoopi Goldberg18:15

Right.

Presenter18:22

When did you start performing?

Whoopi Goldberg18:24

I think moments after I left the womb.

Whoopi Goldberg18:29

That's the story my mother tells.

Presenter18:31

Really? So you were one of those kids dancing on the kitchen table saying, Look at me, look at me.

Whoopi Goldberg18:31

Really? So you were one of the

Whoopi Goldberg18:34

Look at me, look at me. Yeah. I love the idea that you could be any number of things. And to me, that's what acting was. It meant being able to get into some sort of

Whoopi Goldberg18:49

virtual pod, and time travel.

Presenter18:53

And you didn't uh as far as I understand it then, you didn't start auditioning, doing the traditional things. You you wrote for yourself and you performed for yourself. Why did you make that choice? That's that's quite a difficult thing to choose.

Whoopi Goldberg18:58

You perform

Whoopi Goldberg19:00

Wider.

Whoopi Goldberg19:02

Well, because I thought no one will ever there's nothing that exists that I know of that will show what I think I can do. So I might as well write myself stuff to say so people can see me doing it. And it evolved into writing these characters. And basically when you go into audition, you're just supposed to do a a monologue. So I wrote myself monologues to do that I knew I could do well.

Presenter19:26

Vibe

Presenter19:30

Let's take a break for some music then. Track number five.

Whoopi Goldberg19:32

Ah yes, it's Stevie Wonder. One of the great songs, greatest songs ever written, Superstition.

Presenter19:38

Do you know Stevie Wonder?

Whoopi Goldberg19:39

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg19:40

Hello, Stevie.

Presenter19:40

Hello, Stevie. What's he like?

Whoopi Goldberg19:43

He's a big old guy. He's a big old guy who is just genius is not even the word. It's just he's like a walking musical note. And he's very funny. You know, he's the greatest. He's delicious.

Speaker 419:57

Very superstitious

Speaker 420:02

Writings on the wall

Speaker 420:07

Every shoot is the

Speaker 420:11

Letters about the fall

Speaker 420:16

Thirteen month old baby

Speaker 420:21

Broker looking lad

Speaker 420:26

Send them either

Presenter20:28

Stevie Wonder and Superstition. Were you very at home when when the doors opened to the club of A Listers? You know, the colour purple and your Oscar nomination and you won a Golden Globe for it? There you were. You were now in the club and the doors shut behind you and you were one of those people who can look across the room at those other people and think, Well, I'm one of you now. Did it feel right?

Whoopi Goldberg20:39

The door

Whoopi Goldberg20:41

Yeah.

Presenter20:46

Well

Whoopi Goldberg20:46

It felt okay because I was in New York with Mike Nichols and Garson Kanan, and I would be able to sit and talk to Garson about the movies that they wrote for Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn. And then they would call, you know, Jack Lemmon and say, you know, now Whoopi's coming, and so would you have her to lunch? So I got to spend time with Jack Lemon and Walter Mathow. You know, I would be at dinner with Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier, and my brain would be going,

Whoopi Goldberg21:25

You know.

Presenter21:25

What about being defined by your colour in Hollywood? Did you feel that that was too important, or not important enough, or shouldn't have been important, but was?

Whoopi Goldberg21:33

Yeah. Well, I would say to people, you know, it's like, well, how do you feel about being white? What what goes through your mind? And they'd say, well, I never think what's well. You know, it just is. Of course it just is. But I think if you're

Presenter21:44

It just is. But I think if you're a minority, I mean, I know, you know, as a Scottish person when I first came to live in London.

Speaker 421:48

Yeah.

Presenter21:50

I felt different because I was a Scottish person living in London.

Whoopi Goldberg21:51

I was a Scottish person living in London.

Presenter21:53

Exactly.

Whoopi Goldberg21:55

No, other people would tell me that it was.

Presenter21:58

That's good.

Whoopi Goldberg21:59

And what I was trying to say was, I would say, well, I never, I don't think about, you don't think about being scars, you just are.

Presenter22:06

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg22:06

But it's not until somebody goes, My God, you're Scottish, do you go, Oh yeah, my God, I'm

Presenter22:11

Scottish. It doesn't. Well, somebody did once ask me, Are you going to read the news in that voice? And I said, Well, it's the only one. It's not. Yeah. I mean, it's like what.

Whoopi Goldberg22:18

Yeah. I mean, it's like, what did you think out? You know, I would say to people, you look surprised that I'm black.

Whoopi Goldberg22:28

You knew, didn't you?

Whoopi Goldberg22:30

All the mo I wasn't Chinese yesterday and turn

Presenter22:33

You know. What then about being because of course I I can't imagine that people didn't then expect you because you were in this exalted role and you were not typical of all of the stars we normally see to be the role model. But you know you have to be the role model.

Whoopi Goldberg22:45

That you know you have to

Whoopi Goldberg22:47

Yeah. I never thought I should be. I never thought I could be. And so I always just kinda laughed and said, Come on, you don't really want your kids emulating me, do you? But, you know, I I always think people say to me, you know, for black youth in particular. And I'd say, well, basically, I'm just gonna stay black. How's that?

Whoopi Goldberg23:08

That'll be my example of what to do. But I I'm not a big believer that your kids should have role models outside of their parents. I think the first role models you should have are the people who are raising you. And if they're not good role models, then you look outside.

Presenter23:28

So many questions come to my mind, but I'm going to wait to ask them until after the next piece of music. What have you chosen?

Whoopi Goldberg23:33

I've chosen my queen, Celia Cruz. She was Cuban. She was amazed. She was a teacher originally. And also wanted to sing. And her parents, who were very strict, said, No, no, no, no, no, if you go into performing, if you become a singer, you can never come home again.

Whoopi Goldberg23:53

And unfortunately.

Whoopi Goldberg23:55

The Revolution happened almost simultaneously as her going out as a singer and she never got to go home.

Whoopi Goldberg24:04

So I I revere her because she stood for who she was. She knew that she had to do her art. And this is the truth. The price for

Whoopi Goldberg24:15

doing you can sometimes be very, very, very high. And also I love Latin music. I love to dance. And so whenever Celia comes on, you know, I just dance my little bah.

Speaker 424:44

King Bamba, King Barak, King Barak, King Barak, Baramikuba, Makibara, Parak, Makibara Kubara, Maki Bamba, King Barakumara, Maki Bamba, Hecky, Mara Kubara, Maki Mara, Cuba, Makibara Kumbara, Makimara Kubara, Makibara

Presenter24:58

Seria Cruz and Kimbara. You said

Whoopi Goldberg25:01

I love that you're talking with this very calm voice. Nobody knew you were in here just dancing your behind off, too.

Presenter25:06

It's radio, that's the beauty of radio.

Whoopi Goldberg25:07

Yeah.

Presenter25:09

Um, you said as we were going into that piece of music that the price for being you, for being an artist, can be very high. What's the price been for you?

Whoopi Goldberg25:17

Oh, friendships and relationships and

Whoopi Goldberg25:21

Things that end in ships.

Whoopi Goldberg25:25

You've been married three times. Yeah. But you know, I'm just uh the truth is I'm just not very good at it. I love the wedding part because I love you know, everybody's always happy.

Whoopi Goldberg25:38

But it's the day after that I have trouble with.

Presenter25:41

Is it true that at one of your weddings you said when the vows were read out and you were meant to say I do, you said maybe.

Whoopi Goldberg25:47

Yeah, possibly, perhaps, I th I know.

Presenter25:51

And what is it, the little things? Is it having to compromise?

Presenter25:55

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg25:55

It's having to

Whoopi Goldberg25:58

Think about

Whoopi Goldberg26:00

Someone else constantly who isn't a child.

Whoopi Goldberg26:05

I don't think love should be executed as a duty.

Whoopi Goldberg26:10

You shouldn't have to feel like if you don't respond a certain way.

Whoopi Goldberg26:18

It goes against the grain of relationship because the couple isn't always coupling. You must have time alone.

Presenter26:27

So do you think I mean, will there be would there be a fourth, Mr. Goldberg? Or is that have you given up?

Whoopi Goldberg26:32

Oh, no, there'd be no Miss. There's never been a Mr. Goldberg, and part of that is what people do. You know, people are cruel when the woman is the more famous. Yeah, I mean, I was sort of saying that I knew. But, you know, outside of this room, people are mean. People do get lost in your celebrity. And it's a terrible place for a guy to be, you know.

Presenter26:41

Famous. Yeah, I mean I was sort of aware of that.

Speaker 426:51

Mm.

Whoopi Goldberg26:55

Often, though, if he's a fully formed person, it rolls off his back.

Whoopi Goldberg27:01

But those fully formed people are generally married to other people.

Presenter27:05

The dam.

Presenter27:07

Is is it true you live in the middle of nowhere? I mean, when you're not working where I mean, without being too specific, clearly, I don't want to. Okay, oh right, so in in the rural wilderness.

Whoopi Goldberg27:09

Not working with

Whoopi Goldberg27:12

Head of only Vermont.

Whoopi Goldberg27:13

I see.

Whoopi Goldberg27:14

In the rural world. It's not desolate. It's actually quite wonderful. I live out in the middle of nowhere because I like it. Tell me about your next piece of music, then movie. Well, it's Amy Winehouse. I love this little girl. I've never met her. I don't know her. But this song, Me and Mr. Jones, is so reminiscent of the music I grew up with listening to my mother listening to the music. She has the phraseology. She has the feel. She's just terrific, and I love it. And it contains a brilliant question.

Presenter27:30

Better

Speaker 427:54

Yes, in between me and mommy, it's me and Method Jones. Me and Mr. Jones.

Speaker 428:04

What kind of free thing is?

Speaker 428:09

You made me miss the slick races

Speaker 428:14

I didn't love you when I did carefully hidden

Whoopi Goldberg28:22

Enjoy that. I love this girl. I just, that talent is so.

Presenter28:22

Enjoy that.

Whoopi Goldberg28:28

Great Amy, come on, baby, you got ye come on, you can do this.

Presenter28:35

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg28:35

Yeah.

Presenter28:35

We've come this far, Wooby Goldberg, and I've not got much more time to talk to you. And I know you're over in London because you're producing a sister act, which is going to be on stage here. Do you the role of producer, is that one that sits easily with you?

Whoopi Goldberg28:42

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg28:43

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg28:47

Yeah, I like it. I like it. I don't mind it at all. It's a lot more relaxing. Is it?

Presenter28:52

Let me perform

Whoopi Goldberg28:52

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter28:55

Yeah, like

Whoopi Goldberg28:55

Okay. And then you go on with your life.

Presenter28:57

Uh

Presenter28:58

As easy as that. It's as for me, yeah. Do do you like leading a team? Are you quite a sort of somebody who likes to control what's happening?

Whoopi Goldberg29:00

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg29:05

No, I like to be part of a team. I like to be part of a team. I like I don't like being the figurehead because then it's all on you. One of the things that I've come to realize is that careers evolve. And who I was 22, 23 years ago is not who I am now. And so you have to ride the wave of your career and as you do with your life. So if there's a movie that I want to do, you know, I'm sure.

Whoopi Goldberg29:35

It'll find me.

Whoopi Goldberg29:37

And is it that you

Presenter29:37

You get offered me

Whoopi Goldberg29:38

Movies that you see Thank you.

Presenter29:39

That's just not for me or you just don't get offered me.

Whoopi Goldberg29:39

No, I never used to get offered I never got offered movies. All the movies I've made were other people's movies, except for Color Purple, which is written specifically with me in mind by

Presenter29:53

So Sister Act was for somebody else?

Whoopi Goldberg29:54

Yeah, a sister act was uh put together for Bette Midler.

Whoopi Goldberg29:58

Jumpin' Jack Flash was put together for Shelly Long. Ghost, what about Ghost? Ghost was written for, I think, a woman called Teresa Wright. But they wouldn't let me audition for Ghost. It wasn't until Patrick Swayze said, I am not doing this movie unless you audition her. So that's how I got Ghost. But it wasn't for me. And so when you won the Oscar for it, did you go up and shake it in their faces and says that? But I thanked Patrick and said, you know, if not, I owe this Oscar to Patrick Swayze. And he knew what I meant.

Presenter30:25

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg30:34

Yeah.

Presenter30:34

Before we go into the next piece of music then, as you know, this is Desert Island Discs and I'm going to cast you away onto a Desert Island. I'm imagining that because Vermont and where you go to be lonely and happiest uh is a choice for you, that being on a Desert Island might be quite nice.

Whoopi Goldberg30:43

To be

Whoopi Goldberg30:49

will be vain.

Presenter30:50

Nice. Wouldn't get lonely, would you get lonely?

Whoopi Goldberg30:52

Um

Whoopi Goldberg30:53

If I had some sort of animal I'd be all right. Like if there was like a a mountain lion or something that was around. Or a cat or a dog or something.

Presenter31:02

So tell me why you've chosen Trek Eight and then we'll come to the others.

Whoopi Goldberg31:05

Well, John Sutherland and Jane Burby singing The Flower Duet from Lachme is just.

Whoopi Goldberg31:12

I want to weep at their ability to do.

Whoopi Goldberg31:16

this, to be able to sing like this, because there's something pure in it. There's something pure in these particular voices for me that doesn't exist anywhere else. And when you have two voices that can dance this way, it's pretty spectacular.

Speaker 431:39

But I know you have a small

Speaker 431:43

Oh no, that is not so

Speaker 431:49

But I won't.

Presenter32:30

Joan Sutherland and Jean Berbet singing The Flower Duet from Lackney by Delibes. So, Whoopi Gilberg, we come to the moment then where I give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you can take another book on to the island with you. What's your book going to be?

Whoopi Goldberg32:40

And you

Whoopi Goldberg32:45

The the book I would take with me actually is Letters to a Young Poet, because that's what I carried with me over here. It's just.

Whoopi Goldberg32:54

Great.

Presenter32:55

It's yours. And also I'm going to give you a luxury to make life a little more bearable on this island on your own. What luxury would you like?

Whoopi Goldberg33:00

On your

Whoopi Goldberg33:03

I believe I would like to have some wise potato chips.

Presenter33:09

As many cases as you want, they're yours.

Presenter33:12

Yeah.

Whoopi Goldberg33:13

I'm coming back here.

Presenter33:15

And if you had to choose just one of the eight disks, if if the waves were to threaten to wash to the shore and uh take them away, which one would you save?

Whoopi Goldberg33:27

I think I would probably save

Whoopi Goldberg33:31

Lovely day.

Presenter33:33

Whoopi Gilberg, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you.

Whoopi Goldberg33:37

My A pleasure.

Presenter33:38

Yeah.

Presenter33:54

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.