Whoopi Goldberg says iconic roles came from scripts others turned down

Whoopi Goldberg has told how her most famous roles came about by accident.

The 70-year-old star has revealed that she accepted roles that were originally written for other actors.

Talking about her iconic role in Sister Act, Goldberg said, "They wrote that for Bette Midler. That wasn't mine," during an interview on Baby, This is Keke Palmer.

"I didn't take it," she said. "I was looking for work. But it's true because apparently I'm Black. And I guess I didn't realise it."

She continued, "So, every time I went looking for something, they were like, 'Oh, no, no, no. This isn't for you.' So, I said to my agents, 'Give me all the stuff that people have turned down.' "So, I got Burglar that way because that was Bruce Willis' movie," she said. "Jumping Jack Flash was Shelley Long's movie. Um, there's several, a whole bunch of movies I got (that way)."

Bette Midler, 80, recently told how she'd turned down the role in Sister Act. "I said, 'My fans don't want to see me in a wimple,'" she told Rolling Stone magazine. "And Whoopi (Goldberg) said, 'Bring on the goddamn wimple.'

A script has reportedly been completed for Sister Act 3. Walt Disney Studios first announced it was in development back in 2020 with Tyler Perry as producer.