THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610250079
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 94 lines
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, flashing that inimitably broad grin, didn't have to ponder the question of why she seldom gets the man in her movies.
``Honey, I don't WANT the man,'' she said. ``Not every woman, and not every plot, has to have a romantic interest. If the romantic interest isn't really necessary to a movie, I avoid it.
``If you don't watch them, they'll always put that kiss in for the last scene - as if to say, `Well, what the woman really wanted all along was just the man.' That's a throwback to Doris Day, but my idea of a happy ending is not necessarily when the woman gets the man.''
In Goldberg's new comedy, ``The Associate,'' she plays a sharp-witted, talented but unrecognized stockbroker who is overlooked for an advancement when the job is given to a devious young man (Tim Daly of TV's ``Wings'') who is adept at taking credit for work she does.
The movie's theory is that testosterone-tilted Wall Street leans heavily toward ``good ol' boys'' while the majority of women are lumped into a work force collectively known as ``secretaries.''
To fight back, Laurel, the go-getter played by Whoopi, creates an alter-ego, Robert Cutty (borrowing the name from a bottle of booze she happens to notice when she's called upon to name him), and makes crackerjack financial decisions in his name. Eventually, the world demands to SEE Robert Cutty.
Then wily Whoopi has to masquerade as the man she has been quoting all this time.
Disney's ads have fanned an expectation that this is the way-out comedy in which Whoopi Goldberg will play a man - much as Robin Williams played a woman in the blockbuster hit ``Mrs. Doubtfire.''
Whoopi shakes her head. ``No. No. I am NOT playing a man,'' she said as she sat in a New York hotel. ``I'm playing a woman who is playing a man. There is a difference. This woman, Laurel, does the things she's seen on TV. This is her idea of what this man might do. I had to be aware, every minute of the time, that there was a woman inside all this makeup. This wasn't really a man.''
Expectations are, too, that ``The Associate'' is another of those male-bashing hit flicks, like ``First Wives Club,'' ``Waiting to Exhale'' and a half dozen others.
Dressed in black slacks and a businesslike black blazer, Whoopi is anxious to bring down the level of rancor a little.
``I'm not a big believer in the differences between men and women,'' she said. ``I know men who have worked hard all their lives and are painfully aware that they are not going to be advanced any further. You don't always get what you deserve for the work you do. That `glass ceiling' exists for everyone, not just women. But I'm a woman and I'm African-American, so I touch all the bases.''
She launched her show business career in theater and improvisation in San Diego and San Francisco, performing with the Blake Street Hawkeyes theater troupe. ``Everyone knows what a sexy woman I am,'' she said, not cracking a smile. ``The tabloids chronicle, daily, my love life. Right?''
After at least two failed marriages and a thwarted, much-publicized romance with Ted Danson, she is currently linked with actor Frank Langella. In the coming months, they'll be working together on Broadway - she's taking over Nathan Lane's leading role in the musical ``A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' and he's in Noel Coward's comedy ``Present Laughter.''
``Women say they can't get power. I have power - lots of it. The president of the United States calls me. I emcee the Oscar show. I mean, what else could I want? But that doesn't mean the struggle doesn't continue. The struggling is still there. Now, it's an internal struggle. And struggle doesn't mean just a financial struggle.''
Asked if success has any pitfalls, she counters, ``Well, I didn't expect it to be quite so public.''
``The Associate'' is her second movie in as many months and she still has another coming out this year. For it, she will take a deeply dramatic turn to play Myrlie Evers, the mother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, in ``Ghosts of Mississippi,'' directed by Rob Reiner and set to be released Dec. 20.
She says she will definitely not host the Oscar show next year. ``I'm pushing Rosie O'Donnell. I'd done it about the best I could do it. I don't think I could do much better. But I may host it again some other year.''
She spent three and a half hours every morning getting into the male get-up to play Robert S. Cutty in ``The Associate.'' There were seven layers of make-up, a fat suit, a bald cap to cover her hair and a man's suit.
The result?
Cutty looks like Marlon Brando (the present, fat, Brando, not the 1950s leather-jacket variety).
``There's a little of Charlie Chaplin and George Washington there too,'' Whoopi volunteered. ``I knew it was going to work when I fooled this guy who has been working at my house for five months. People came on the set and walked right by me, not knowing it was me.''
More than just low comedy, she claims ``The Associate'' ``has references to racism and sexism - all the isms, but not too much in depth. You know, baby, I'm not all that deep. I just like to get on with it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
Whoopi Goldberg plays an unappreciated stockbroker.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES
INTERVIEW by CNB