Legendary now seems a fitting term for Whoopi Goldberg, twice a Golden Globe winner for The Color Purple (in 1986) and Ghost (1991 – also an Oscar), the first woman to host the Academy Awards, in 1994, social and political activist since the Comic Relief era and now a TV personality and very vocal both in the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. And she is truly irrepressible wielding the resolve that led her to send an Instagram message to Pope Francis: “Good morning Your Holiness,” she wrote. “Please forgive me for reaching out like this. I was talking to a friend of mine who is an Irish priest with a black parish. He’s in a lot of pain because he feels that the Church has not said anything definitively about standing with its parishioners and saying yes, black lives matter, brown lives matter.”  And she went on: “I wonder if there was something you might be able to do to send the message that the Catholic Church knows black lives matter … and that there is no difference between a black Catholic and a white Catholic and a Hispanic Catholic, that everyone that God has in his hands, matters.” We spoke with her over teleconference as the Black Lives Matter protests engulfed the country. The occasion was her receiving the Tulipani di Seta Nera festival Award from Italy, a festival that recognizes films and people distinguished for their significant social impact.

First of all, Ms. Goldberg, where are you in this crazy time of the pandemic?

I am hiding in my house like everyone else, in New York. I am very comfortable being by myself in my home, but I am starting to miss people. Trying to get back to Italy by the way: I was supposed to be there a couple of months ago and then, of course, everything shut down. In fact, we are trying to take our cues from how Italy has handled this pandemic, which is really beautiful. It’s taking care of the people and it’s taking care of everybody and we are trying to figure out how to do the same and hopefully with the same good outcome that you have all done. 

How important is cinema to cultural growth, in your opinion?

Well since I was a little girl, I know that lots of things changed because cinema allows people a way to look at life that a lot of us don’t know about and can do it from a distance, without having to commit. I think you cannot really have change in the world unless people can see what is awful and needs to be changed and what is good and needs to be encouraged.

It’s been 35 years since The Color Purple a film that had a very strong message. Does that movie still speak to today’s generations?

I think The Color Purple affects people for different reasons. I have met people who said she was me: she was someone I knew, or I felt that way, or I wanted to be free like her, I wanted to be better, I miss my family. People of all colors, of all shapes and sizes, connect to this movie because of that character; you could do this movie with black women, yellow women, white women, everybody and the story stays the same. It is not necessarily about a black woman; it is about a woman. And so, I think she is universal, which makes me doubly lucky for me that it was my first film! Sister Act also touched women. Nuns who dedicated themselves to God.

Do you think film will be able to help eradicate racism in language and behavior once and for all?

It’s a big question and I don’t know if we will ever be able to get rid of it. But what we can do is recognize that it is real, and you must say, what can I do, how can I help? I think what people need to say is ‘okay, it isn’t my experience, but I want to help you get through this so that we together can combat it, I will stand behind you to fight this’. And then the kids will have to fight it for the next round. 

I wonder if you can comment about what you felt when you saw the horrific images of George Floyd and then the uprising, the demonstrations. 

Well, the beauty of all of this is when people looked up and saw that the eyes of the world were on us. And that the world was saying we don’t want this anymore either. It gave people such a feeling that change could happen. The last time I saw this, again, I was a little girl, and black people in the South wanted to vote, a right which every other American is born with. But we weren’t born with the right to vote and we had been here a long time. So when people began to see that there were dogs attacking children, that there were police with batons hitting people who wanted to vote, people started to say, that is not right, America, you are supposed to be able to vote when you are born. And lots of white people came and said we are standing with you to fight for your right. And then people in the world also said what is happening there is not right, you cannot talk to us about what we are supposed to do until you clean your own house.  And because of that, all over the country, people of color got the right to vote. This is the same thing. People are seeing a lot of black people getting killed for really no reason, just being gunned down in the street. And like George Floyd, there was no way you could ever justify that, that is not what we want police to be doing in any country. I like policemen, I like them a lot because when they do their jobs, they are amazing, they keep people safe, they keep everything going. But we have somehow gotten away from what police should be doing in a community, wherever they are in the world, people shouldn’t be afraid of the police, those days are done, we don’t have to be afraid. Everybody wants a change. And it’s fantastic. So, I am a crazy optimist, because I do believe the best in people. 

What are you working on now and what is happening, is there a project that you are starting or working on now?

I am trying to finish two books, one children’s book and one adult book about getting older.  (laughter) And I just finished a TV series based on a Stephen King book called The Stand. And I am ready to go to Italy to shoot a series of blogs. As I said, I was about to leave when the pandemic started. Now I can’t wait to go!