Whoopi Goldberg on How Patrick Swayze Convinced Her to Make Ghost: ‘He Was Sexy and Sweet’

“It wasn’t until we all saw the film that we realized what we had,” says the EGOT winner

Whoopi Goldberg’s Academy Award-winning role almost passed her by.   

Five years after her first Oscar nomination for The Color Purple, the star, 68, won her Oscar in 1991 at the 63rd ceremony for playing the questionable psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost. However, Goldberg needed some persuasion from her costar before she signed onto the project.

“I get a phone call from my agent, Ron Meyer, who says, ‘Patrick Swayze has been hired for this movie. Patrick is not going to do this if you don’t do it. Can you make some time for him and the  director to come up?’” the decorated actress told author Dave Karger in his new book 50 Oscar Nights (on sale Jan. 23).

The EGOT-winning actress said director and Jerry Zucker and Swayze flew to meet her, and she was immediately at ease. “So they flew in, I meet Patrick, and out of the blue, we’re old friends,” Goldberg recalls.

Shortly after, Swayze made his pitch for Ghost, in which Oda Mae Brown, ultimately played by Goldberg, helps Swayze’s Sam Wheat communicate with his girlfriend (Demi Moore) from the great beyond.

“About 40 minutes go by and Patrick says, ‘Please do this with me,'” remembers Goldberg. “I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And that’s how it happened.”

Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Swayze in “Ghost.”.CBS VIA GETTY

The supernatural romance ultimately became a sensation no one expected. “I said yes, not really knowing what it was going to be. It wasn’t until we all saw the film that we realized what we had,” Goldberg shared with Karger.

Not only was Goldberg’s 1991 win pivotal for her career, but it also stood as a historic moment in Oscar history. Her win marked the second time a Black actress won Best Supporting Actress, over 50 years after Hattie McDaniel’s historic win in 1940 for Gone with the Wind.

The View co-host added that when she and Swayze saw the film for the first time together. “He looked over to me and said, ‘Do you remember making this movie?’ I said, ‘I remember some of this, but I don’t remember all of this!’ It was kind of like, ‘Oh my God, this is great!’”

Swayze died in 2009 at the age of 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Today, Goldberg toasts the star’s kind nature. “He was sexy and sweet and just a terrific human being to me,” she says.

Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown in “Ghost.”.CBS VIA GETTY

Goldberg previously shared with Naomi Campbell on her No Filter with Naomi YouTube series that it was also Swayze who convinced producers she was right for the part.

Before Goldberg was recruited for the role, she asked her agent why she hadn’t auditioned for the role. “They don’t want you,” he told her at the time, adding that, “they think that your persona, that Whoopi, is too big and will take people out of the movie.”

Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat in “Ghost.”.CBS VIA GETTY

But Swayze had been wanting to work with her. “I’d never met him, but he was a fan,” Goldberg told Campbell, adding that during their first meeting, they immediately hit it off. “As soon as Patrick and I looked at each other, we started laughing,” said the Sister Act star.

Recently, Goldberg made a surprise appearance in the new The Color Purple. She originally starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 movie, an adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, as Celie Johnson.

She appears in a cameo in the new film, which stars Fantasia Barrino as Celie.

Whoopi Goldberg attends 63rd Annual Academy Awards on March 25, 1991.RON GALELLA, LTD./RON GALELLA COLLECTION VIA GETTY

Goldberg’s cameo, said director Blitz Bazawule, “was symbolic not only because of what Whoopi represents in the canon of The Color Purple, but what Whoopi represents, period — the juggernaut that she is and the doors she kicked open.”