Whoopi Goldberg’s ‘Ghost’ Role Almost Went to… Tina Turner?

Whoopi Goldberg made cinematic history with her iconic Ghost role, but according to director Jerry Zucker, the part almost went to the one and only Tina Turner. In a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment ahead of the film’s 30th anniversary, Zucker revealed that Paramount Studios originally wanted the music superstar for the role, but her limited experience as a dramatic actress led him to lobby for Goldberg, instead. “She did a credible job, but she wasn’t quite an actress,” he said of Turner. “Maybe she could be, but there was a big difference.”

While rumors have long persisted that Ghost star Patrick Swayze campaigned for Goldberg to join the film — a claim she reiterated in her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech at the 1991 Academy Awards — Zucker told Yahoo that there’s no truth to such stories. “For some reason, there’s this persistent rumor that Patrick said to the studio, ‘I won’t [make the movie without Whoopi],'” recalled the veteran director. “If that’s true I never heard about it. Patrick loved Whoopi, no question about it, but the rumors of him getting her the role are apocryphal.”

In reality, it was Zucker who lobbied for Goldberg — even though he initially doubted her ability to nail the dramatic role. “I didn’t want a comedian playing Oda Mae, and my image of Whoopi was her comedian side,” he said. Both Goldberg and Turner sent in audition tapes for the role, and the studio believed the music star had the edge. “[Turner] was in London and sent in a video, and the studio was very excited about the idea,” said Zucker. “At the end of the video, she was like, ‘Jerry, I really want it!’ I was like, ‘I can die now.'”

However, the Ghost and Airplane! director soon realized that Turner simply didn’t have the acting chops to nail the role. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Goldberg nailed the chemistry read with Swayze. “We read her and Patrick, and man you could just see it. For me, it’s so great to see someone just doing it,” said Zucker. “Ghost was my first drama, and I was terribly afraid of not getting it right. So I was really fortunate that Patrick and Whoopi were able to read together so that I could see it in front of me and go, ‘Yeah, that works.'”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists would certainly agree.

Where to stream Ghost