Thirty years after the first Sister Act film premiered, Whoopi Goldberg is sharing her excitement about reprising her role as Deloris Van Cartier, aka Sister Mary Clarence.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the 66-year-old actress didn’t reveal much about the upcoming sequel but she did confirm she has been fighting for it to be made. “I’ve been trying to do this for six years,” she said. “I was told no one was interested in this. It takes a minute for people to realize they should take their foot out of their mouth.”
The View co-host said the movie is indeed still happening but they haven’t filmed yet.
“You’re never fully happy with a script because one of the things you find is you wanna have the space to make an adjustment if you need to. Sometimes what looks right on paper doesn’t come out of your mouth the right way. You have to move it around a little bit, but I’m very hopeful people will be happy,” she said.
The Luck actress — who starred in the 1992 original film Sister Act as well as the following year’s sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit — said the three-decade-long wait was worth it.
“It feels right,” she said, “Because we did Sister Act 1 and 2 back to back, which is why I think they are really great. But now you need some space on it and you need to let [my character] grow up and become an adult, which is what’s happened. We’ll see. She was an adult when she started but she’s much more of an adult now.”
The development of Sister Act 3 was officially announced back in December 2020. Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production President Sean Bailey announced the exciting news during Disney Investor Day of that year, also noting that Tyler Perry signed on to produce alongside Goldberg.
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Even Perry is excited to see Goldberg return to her beloved role. “We are pretty far down the line, and in the script and in the production of it, so it’s— I’m really excited for it,” he told ET in May. “It’s more Whoopi than anything. I wanted it to be the experience that I had watching both of [the first two films]. I want everybody who watches it to feel that way coming out of the theater, to feel that sense of good in life.”