Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t regret kicking off her career with a sketch about a disabled woman looking for love.
Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t regret kicking off her career with a sketch about a disabled woman looking for love
The 67-year-old actress’ one-woman series of monologues called ‘The Spook Show’ that she put on in the 1980s in New York featured a segment where she contorted her limbs to play a woman with an unspecified disability searching for romance.
Whoopi told the new issue of the Radio Times about the inspiration behind the sketch: “Sometimes people said, ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t say that.’ But a friend of mine who was paraplegic said, ‘I’m very mad at you.’
“I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because you never do us.’
“So I wrote this piece about a young lady who is not quite paraplegic, but is differently abled. She has disabilities which don’t allow her always to think of herself as a hot young woman.”
When asked if she would repeated the performance today, Whoopi added: “Yeah! Because you tell me what’s wrong with it?
“The things that I’ve done, there’s always been a reason. All of my work has been, ‘This could be you, so pay attention.’ That’s always been my motive.”
‘The Spook Show’ also featured Whoopi transforming into a drug-addicted burglar who visits the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and a teenage Californian girl who describes performing an abortion on herself.
Whoopi, who is one of only 18 people to have won an EGOT – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony – thanks to her performances in films including ‘The Color Purple’ and ‘Ghost’, also admitted: “I’m always shocked that people come and see me do stuff. I never thought I was going to become a famous movie person.”
Whoopi was suspended for two weeks last year from her role as co-host of ‘The View’ after making what ABC News called “wrong and hurtful comments” about Jews and the Holocaust.
She said race was not a factor in the Holocaust, before apologising hours later and again on the following day’s episode, saying she “misspoke”.
Whoopi added at the time: “My words upset so many people, which was never my intention.
“I understand why now and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.”
Radio Times can be ordered at www.radiotimes.com.
Tagged in Whoopi Goldberg