Whoopi Goldberg accepted her role in Tony Goldwyn‘s Ezra without reading the script. The actors knew each other from co-starring in 1990’s Ghost.
“If he says he’s got something, I don’t care how other people respond to it, I’m there,” Goldberg said of Goldwyn during Tuesday’s episode of The View, where the actor appeared as a guest alongside Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne.
Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, the medium who communicates with Patrick Swayze’s spirit, in Ghost (she won an Oscar for the role). Goldwyn was the antagonist, Carl Bruner, and Goldberg said this week he is a “wonderful partner.”
In Ezra, Goldberg plays the manager of Cannavale’s character, a stand-up comedian struggling to co-parent his autistic son. Byrne, Robert DeNiro, Rainn Wilson and others round out the cast. Goldwyn directed the movie, and also has a small part onscreen. The project premiered at the Toronto Film Fest last year and will now hit theaters this weekend.
“The vibe of the film was like, yeah, I want to be part of this,” Goldberg said this week of when Goldwyn first asked her about it. “People don’t usually ask me. So, when somebody says ‘Hey, you want to come play?’ It’s like, yes!”
Goldwyn expanded on how he cast his friend in the project, saying “I literally just emailed. Bobby and I were talking when the movie started to come together, we’re like, ‘You know who’d be amazing… Whoopi. I just sent Whoopi an email going, ‘Hey, I’m doing this movie with Bobby and Bob De Niro, there’s this part you’d be perfect for. Can I send you the script?’ You wrote me back immediately going, ‘I’m in, just tell me where to show.’ I said, ‘Don’t you want to read the script?’ She was like, ‘No, I’m there. Just tell me where to go!’”
