Whoopi Goldberg reveals how Patrick Swayze persuaded her to ‘Ghost’

Looking back, Whoopi Goldberg recalls how Patrick Swayze persuaded her to accept her Oscar-winning role in Ghost (1990).

The actress admitted to requiring some convincing before agreeing to play psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Jerry Zucker-directed movie, as reported by author Dave Karger in his new book 50 Oscar Nights, which was published by People magazine.

“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?’” Goldberg recalled.

The EGOT winner added, “So they [Zucker and Swayze] flew in, I meet Patrick, and out of the blue, we’re old friends. … About 40 minutes go by and Patrick says, ‘Please do this [movie] with me.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And that’s how it happened.”

In the film Ghost, Goldberg portrays Oda Mae Brown, a reluctant psychic who, following his murder, assists a young man named Sam Wheat (played by Swyze) in getting in touch with his girlfriend (Demi Moore).

The co-host of The View also acknowledged that they had underestimated the film's box office success.

I said yes, not really knowing what it was going to be,” she said. “It wasn’t until we all saw the film that we realized what we had.”