Whoopi. She has always marched to her own drummer: the quirky name; the defiant dreadlocks; the wide-ranging, often noncommercial film roles ("Sarafina", "Clara's Heart"); the animated voices ("The Lion King", "The Pagemaster"); the guest stints on TV shows such as "Star Trek" at a time she hardly needs it; the Ted Danson love affair and `that' episode. Remember Danson in blackface two years ago at the Friar's Club roast for Goldberg and the actress's admission that the poorly received comedic stint was `her' idea?
What's so refreshing about Whoopi Goldberg is that the honesty and moxie that are her trademarks have not diminished over time: When asked what movie she's filming right now, for example, she responds, "Oh honey, you don't want to know, it's so bad."
Of course, in Hollywood you're only as good as your last success, and, fortunately, Goldberg's had plenty of those. There was the $300 million made by "Sister Act". The $8 million she garnered as a salary for its less successful sequel. The Academy Award she won for "Ghost". The Oscar show she hosted last year. And the fact that she's become a rather prominent and favorite guest at the Clinton White House.
Not bad for a girl who grew up in the New York City housing projects, had her daughter (aspiring singer Alexandrea Martin, now 20) when she was 18, divorced shortly thereafter, spent several years on welfare, remarried and went though another divorce at 33. A few months ago she walked down the aisle again, this time to wed union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg, age 40. The couple share homes in West Los Angeles and Connecticut.
Goldberg's newest film, "Boys on the Side", opened recently and, no surprise, it's controversial. She plays a gay woman traveling across the country with a stranger she learns is HIV-infected--a woman she grows to love in nonsexual terms. The movie also stars Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore, and centers on women's friendships, which is one of the things the actress loves about the project.
WHAT APPEALED TO YOU ABOUT THIS ROLE AND FILM? I got to play a sort of different character, a little more contemporary, not quite as dizzy as Dolores in "Sister Act" but not quite as biting as the woman from "The Player".
WAS IT WRITTEN FOR YOU IN PARTICULAR? No, but it felt like a glove.
DID YOU CONSIDER IT AT ALL RISKY TO PLAY A HOMOSEXUAL? No, because if you remember "The Color Purple", my character, Celie, was bisexual and really quite gay--in the book anyway. The country wasn't ready for it then, so the film didn't deal much with it. So this was no big deal. I've [known so many people in the business] with AIDS for so long it's just part of my life, but I think in the last five years we as a country have come to understand that the disease touches everyone. It was nice to be in something that dealt with this issue in such a classy way.
WAS YOUR CHARACTER PATTERNED AFTER ANYONE? No, because the biggest problem with watching gay folks on film is, everyone is stereotyped. Having gone through that early in my career--being a victim of stereotyping--I wanted to just play my character for what she was: a human being who loved women. She had no problem with men, but they weren't for her. There was no need to "butch" it to make it acceptable visually. She's a woman who's soft, but she's got edges. And that's been my experience of gay women.
IN THE LAST YEAR OR SO WE SAW YOU ROMANTICALLY ON SCREEN--WITH TED DANSON IN "MADE IN AMERICA" AND WITH RAY LIOTTA IN "CORRINA, CORRINA". WAS THAT NEW AND EXCITING? It's been the most romance I've had on screen. This has less to do with my concept than with the 'powers that be's" concept of what is sensual, beautiful and acceptable. Those barriers are changing. There are more women out there that look like me than there were ten years ago. I guess the fact that I was involved in real life with several men, people said, "Oh, okay, I get it, it's possible."
THEY'VE ALL BEEN WHITE MEN WITH YOU ON SCREEN. They seem to be. Though if you watch "Long Walk Home" [a small, independent film released in 1990], I'm there with a black man. But when you talk about big old commercial movies...if they're not sure about you, they're going to put you in there with someone they think might also bring in an audience. And let's face it, I'm a little too old for Denzel Washington and a little too young for Sidney Poitier. So I'm at that awkward stage.
SPEAKING OF ROMANCE, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH MCCALL'S TWO YEARS AGO, YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T FORESEE MARRIAGE AGAIN. QUITE A CHANGE? Yeah, and it's nice to be proved wrong! It was a combination of saying it was okay to say, "It would be good to be with someone" and not be embarrassed about it, and finding a really nice man, a kind person who let me go through the changes I needed to go through. He has his own career and life, and it's not as an actor.
YOU SEE THAT AS AN ADVANTAGE? I believe so. My shadow is large, and if your shadow is not as large as mine, it might make you uncomfortable. But his shadow is large in what he does. So I'm, like, fascinated and proud that because of what he does [as a union organizer], people get their pension, welfare and health benefits.
ARE YOU TWO STRIKINGLY DIFFERENT? We're very similar and completely different and it's funny. He's a vegetarian health-food person.
AND YOU'RE NOT. Nooo! He's a nonsmoker and I'm a smoker trying to stop. But we both love rock-and-roll music and the TV show "The X-Files". The things we don't see eye to eye on are okay too. It's not about making you see it my way. It's about knowing I'm entitled and he's entitled and we go on.
SOUNDS VERY MATURE. I don't know if I'm more mature. I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's okay. I can accept it and laugh at it when it happens. He can laugh at my ego too, and it's okay. Sometimes I'm the strong one, and sometimes he's the strong one, and sometimes we're both really weak. We're not perfect, and it's okay to fight.
YOUR WEDDING, HELD IN THE GARDEN OF YOUR CALIFORNIA HOME AND COMPLETE WITH LOTS OF CELEBRITY GUESTS, SEEMED BIG, WHICH SEEMED UN-WHOOPI-LIKE. OR WAS IT JUST THE HOVERING HELICOPTERS THAT MADE IT APPEAR THAT WAY? It was about 200 people--all friends, people I care about, that I wouldn't be embarrassed to do this in front of. For a long time, no one was sure of the date. Then someone found it out, and we got stuck with the helicopters and news people in front of the house. It was like some sort of war going on. Somebody got in and took pictures, so the rags were very happy with themselves for what would be breaking and entering in any other forum. I wish you could say, "You came into my house uninvited, and now something's missing and I think you took it." But you can't fight that.
YOU LOOKED RATHER DRESSED UP FOR THE WEDDING. I GET THE SENSE THAT'S NOT THE NORM FOR YOU. I dress for comfort. You know, I'm physically touched by lots of people all the time. I mean, I go on the street and people want to shake my hand and touch my hair. If you're bound up in uncomfortable clothes it can make you really crabby. I like casual because I can stay in it longer. But I am glamorous when I'm in the mood. I loved wearing that drag [a long cognac-colored dress designed by Ray Aghayan] on the Oscar show. I dressed well for President Clinton when I hosted something at Ford's Theatre. I like telling Armani or Bob Mackie, "This is what I want to look like," and they understand. They get me wonderfully.
YOU SEEM TO WEAR A LOT OF PANTS. Yeah, I like pants because if you're not paying attention to how you sit, you can't get in trouble.
YOU ARE IN A VERY VAIN BUSINESS WHERE A WOMAN TURNING 40 CAN BE PUT TO REST... This year I turn 40--contrary to what you may have read in 400 articles.
WHY IS THERE SUCH A DISCREPANCY ABOUT YOUR AGE? [THERE WERE REPORTS LISTING HER AS 35 IN 1984, WHEN SHE APPEARED IN A ONE-WOMAN BROADWAY SHOW, WHICH WOULD MAKE HER 46 NOW.] I don't know. First it was my name, now it's my age. I don't care because you can't tell because I'm not gonna wrinkle. I have no qualms with aging--I'm really excited to turn 40--because I was never a leading lady. So I can still have boyfriends and lovers and husbands in movies, and I can be somebody's mother or best friend and that's cool.
SO NO REAL WORRIES, PHYSICALLY? Spreading worries me periodically.
HOW DO YOU SLIM DOWN? By not eating the bad things. Number one, I cannot cook. I've never been able to cook. Now I have a professional chef who does that, and it's great. but if I feel like I've gotten way big--like I was in "The Player"--I'll start to think, "What can I do?" But I quit smoking for a while, and that put weight on, and I also have an under active thyroid, so I tend to go boom. The smoking's not under control, but the thyroid thing is happening.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE A ROLE MODEL, WITH SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES, FAIR OR NOT, BEING THE MOST VISIBLE BLACK ACTRESS TODAY? No. I feel only responsibility to be the best person I can. That, in turn, will speak for any of the things people need to know, like being a black person or a woman or a black woman. As soon as you set yourself as a role model, you have no leeway for learning, you have no leeway to make mistakes. I don't tell anyone to do as I do, but if it works for you too, great. If it doesn't, try something else and don't come to me.
WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUNG BLACK WOMEN WHO COME TO YOU AND WANT ADVICE ON HOW TO BE AN ACTRESS? I say the first thing you have to believe is that this is really what you have to do, you have to act, not for the fame or the money or the guys or the clothes. Then no one will be able to tell you that you can't.
HOW ABOUT POWER? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? AT TIMES YOU'VE BEEN THE HIGHEST-PAID WOMAN IN FILMS... It doesn't mean anything. People equate power and money, and they shouldn't. Just because they pay you a lot of money doesn't mean they listen. It just means they pay you a lot of money and remind you of it...and remind you why they're not going to listen. Can I say, "I want to make this movie tomorrow"? No.
DO YOU FEEL THE ACTOR'S USUAL FEAR OF NEVER WORKING AGAIN? Oh yeah, because people tear you up. I mean, my career should have been dead ten times over with some of the things that have been said. But somehow the people who have gone to see my movies have always supported me, they've never let me fall out of the loop. For which I'm eternally grateful. My fans have allowed me to do animated features and little parts on television. You know, I get letters from people saying, "It's cool to see you do `Star Trek'." I'm trying to get "The X-Files" to let me be on that too.
ARE YOU BASICALLY A PERSON WITHOUT REGRETS IN YOUR LIFE? No, there are of course some, but I don't live with them. My motto is: You do what you can the best you can.
DOES ANY OF THE TED DANSON THING QUALIFY AS A REGRET? I'm not even gonna answer that. I've been married two months; I'd assume it's behind me. I don't even care if it was misunderstood or not.
WHY DID YOU DO "THE LION KING"? I was really trying to impress my granddaughter [Armarah Skye, age four]. And I did. "Pagemaster" was the same thing. I wanted to have something she could go and see--and get. I love animation. I love the idea of being a voice.
DO YOU FEEL DIFFERENT AS A GRANDMOTHER THAN YOU DID AS A MOTHER? Oh yeah. I'm a better friend than I am a parent, and that just doesn't work. I didn't feel I was ready to take on all the responsibilities a parent has to take on--and this was after my daughter was, like, ten! But I'm lucky, I got a second chance. I dig being a mother at this time, and of course, as a grandmother, I just run amok.
DO YOU EMPATHIZE WITH SINGLE PARENTS? It's definitely a tough gig. I don't envy single parents. I was one. It was hard, and it's gotten a lot harder with all these people sitting in judgment about issues they have no knowledge of. My feeling is, if you put things out there for young women to get interested in and put some support out there, if you make education a goal, young women won't stop and have babies to get self-esteem. I'm glad the welfare system was out there for me, because I needed it. But there are people out there today taking people's jobs and expecting families to stay together. You can't say "Get rid of abortion" on the one hand and then be upset that people continue to have babies. You can't have it both ways.
THE ABORTION ISSUE IS STILL IMPORTANT TO YOU? I believe that choice is what it's about. If you choose to have the child, hopefully you'll have people around you who will be supportive. If you choose not to, hopefully you'll have people around you who will be supportive. I only mind people trying to force their beliefs on someone else.
YOU'VE HAD ABORTIONS? Oh yeah. It was a hard choice. I was one of those people, you looked at me and I was having your baby. I was in a great relationship at the time, but we were barely getting by. I have great anger toward people who cavalierly make these decisions, assuming some woman just decides, "I'm going to get my hair done and then get an abortion."
IS LIFE PRETTY GREAT RIGHT NOW? YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING FEELING WONDERFUL? Well, girl, please, this isn't the end of an MGM movie. It's as good as it is.