Icon. Legend. Forever Queen in her glorious splendour! EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg is in a lane all by herself and we can’t help but pay our respects to the ever Inspiring multitalented superstar.
It’s been 30 whole years since Sister Act star Whoopi Goldberg grabbed the Oscar winner title becoming the first Black woman to receive an Oscar in 50 years in 1991 for her role as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost and in a chat over Zoom with Variety, she gets to relive the moment.
The Color Purple star dished on how she styled herself for the ceremony. Recalling, the 65 year old said:
“I looked really good,” she says. “My hair was cool. Dress was cute.” she recalls.
“I couldn’t look glamorous like other people look glamorous. I wasn’t thin and I wasn’t a white lady, so I had to find my own style.” She later opted a black sequined gown with a column style, designed by Nolan Miller who had previously worked on gowns for Whoopi’s iconic mentor Elizabeth Taylor.
The legendary actor and TV personality graces the cover of the magazine’s pre-Oscars issue and yes she looks absolutely fabulous in a black ruffled gorgeous creation from designer Christian Siriano.
Watching the video of the historic moment which also brought back more personal memories, Goldberg recalls; “My brother, who’s no longer with us [Clyde Johnson died in 2015], that was great to see him and my daughter [Alex],” she says. “[I remember] just being happy to be there, get the speech out of the way and get off the stage.”
The actress also revealed what it was like to compete with her fellow nominees that year: Annette Bening, Lorraine Bracco, Diane Ladd, and Mary McDonnell.
According to her, there were no difficulties or hard feelings between the actresses, with Whoopi even taking them out for dinner when she won.
“Any one of us could’ve taken it, and I don’t think anybody would’ve been mad at anybody else,” Whoopi revealed.
“Sometimes you look at actors and you know, ‘Oh, he’s mad,’ but with us, it was just ‘Whoever wins is paying, that’s all I know. Free food.'”
Recalling a golden piece of advice that the legendary late Elizabeth Taylor once gave her, Whoopi echoed: “You and I know you can do anything, but you are Black, so it’s going to be harder for folks to believe.”
She added: “It’s going to be up and down. If you have a way to see where you were, it will allow you to not give up in tough times.”
Goldberg will soon reprise her role as lounge singer-turned-nun-whisperer Deloris Van Cartier in “Sister Act 3” for Disney Plus, after years of back and forth between Goldberg and studio over the premise for the sequel. She and Tyler Perry are co-producing the film, with “Evil Eye” author Madhuri Shekar writing the screenplay, Variety reports.
