Whoopi Goldberg remembered why her mother didn’t attend the Oscars the night she won the honour.
During the Monday, Oct. 7 episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg, 68, looked back on her own experience with the Academy Awards while discussing Kathy Bates’ recent reflection on her acceptance speech.
Goldberg shared that her first nomination for Best Actress came in 1985 for her role in The Color Purple, but the award ultimately went to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful.
However, six years later, Goldberg earned her Oscar win, taking home the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Ghost.
“My mother didn’t come when I won. She came when I was nominated for Color Purple, but she didn’t wanna be there in case I didn’t win again,” said Goldberg.
Reflecting on the year she lost the Best Actress award to Geraldine Page, Goldberg shared that she and her mother, Emma Harris, were still thrilled despite the outcome. Goldberg explained that Page was a well-respected figure in their New York City neighborhood, making the experience special for both of them.
“No, [my mom] didn’t have ‘angry face’ because the woman who won was from our neighborhood, was from Chelsea. And so we were really, the neighborhood was represented, you know?” said Goldberg.
“So her winning … she’d been nominated [seven] times. She’d never won. She won for that and then she passed [a year later in 1987]. So I’m really glad she got her due.”
Goldberg also addressed her mother, who died in 2010, not attending the Oscars that night in her recent memoir, titled Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me.
“My mother wasn’t at the ceremony because she didn’t want to show disappointment if I lost. My daughter Alex and my brother Clyde came with me, everyone looking like two-million bucks,” she wrote, and added that she and her mom “were both Oscars fanatics.”
