Whoopi Goldberg, real name Caryn Elaine Johnson, has come a long way since 1983, when she started her career on stage with her one-woman Spook Show. Since then, she has become an EGOT and bagged multiple prominent roles launching her career to success after 1985’s The Color Purple granted her a breakthrough in the industry.
One of these prominent roles was none other than that of Guinan in 1987’s critically acclaimed masterpiece series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. But before she even scored the role, Whoopi Goldberg almost lost it for the most ridiculous reason as the creators of the series couldn’t understand why a “movie person” like her would want to join a show like theirs!
Whoopi Goldberg Almost Lost Out On Her Star Trek Role
Unlike almost every other actor in Hollywood, Whoopi Goldberg was pretty much a born actress as she won her breakthrough role within a year or two of entering the entertainment industry. In fact, by the time the third Star Trek series came around in 1987, she was famous enough to be making guest appearances in some of the best comedy shows of all time.
Regardless, when she heard about Star Trek: The Next Generation, Goldberg was as excited about it as ever and wanted a place in it no matter what. As she revealed during an interview with the Television Academy Foundation:
“I love horror movies, I love sci-fi, I love everything. So I said to LeVar Burton [Geordi La Forge in TNG], ‘They’re doing Star Trek? Oh my god, tell him [Gene Roddenberry] I want to play.’ So a year goes by, I hear nothing, and I see him and I said, ‘Did you tell him?’ He said ‘Yeah, but they didn’t believe me.’”
However, as it turned out, Gene Roddenberry, the late creator of Star Trek, didn’t quite believe it when The Color Purple actress said she wanted to join the cast of the critically commended series. The reason? Because she was just too famous to be on their show! As Goldberg continued to share:
“I said ‘I’ll talk to whoever but I need to be part of that.’ I say, ‘I want to have a meeting, can I come in, and can I explain why?’ And they said sure. I think, in my head now, they thought ‘This b—h is crazy. She is never going to come and do this show. She’s a movie person.’”
But even as they weren’t willing to believe it, Whoopi Goldberg wasn’t one to step back. She directly contacted Roddenberry just to get cast into the series, willing to clear off this very ridiculous notion that was stopping the late mastermind from believing she actually wanted to be a part of their crew.
Little did they know that Goldberg actually had one too many genuine reasons to join the Star Trek universe through Star Trek: The Next Generation, which weighed a lot heavier and went a lot deeper than just her love for the sci-fi and thriller genres.
Why Getting Cast Into Star Trek Was So Essential To Whoopi Goldberg
Continuing to share her story, Whoopi Goldberg then explained how confused the late Gene Roddenberry was in real life trying his best to decipher just why Goldberg wanted a role in their series so bad when she was already a household name in the industry. Unveiling the entire mystery for him, Goldberg said:
“I said, ‘Gene, do you know that before Lieutenant Uhura, Black people didn’t exist in the future?’ It’s true. No science fiction existed with us in any of the movies, in anything. This is the first time we appear in the future. Not only do we appear in the future, but this is a gorgeous woman and she’s the communications officer! I said, ‘You did this in 1963.’”
As confused as Roddenberry was about this entire situation, Whoopi Goldberg’s sudden revelation hit him so hard that he ended up in even more disbelief. This led to him scanning the entirety of his Star Trek world to figure out whether what Goldberg said was indeed true or not.
Eventually, after realizing the fact that there were indeed no Black people in the future of his sci-fi or any other sci-fi ever since the late Nichelle Nichols played Nyota Uhura in The Original Series in 1963, he carved out a role for Whoopi Golberg. This role was the very one whom people later came to know as Guinan in the Star Trek series and in further Star Trek projects as well.
Just like that, more Black people were introduced in the future created by Gene Roddenberry, and like wildfire, more Black people were further created in other sci-fi futures as well, including in the Star Wars franchise, for one to count.
All because of Whoopi Goldberg, who almost lost out on her role in the series because of a rather ridiculous reason.
