These may be trying times, but Whoopi Goldberg has the cure: more singing nuns. Three decades after back-to-back musical comedies Sister Act and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, the Oscar-winning actress and comedian is reviving Delores Van Cartier aka Sister Mary Clarence for an all-new film. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment during a recent press day for the upcoming drama, Till, Goldberg revealed why now is the right time to make Sister Act 3. (Watch our video interview above.)
“I just want to bring that silly happiness to people, because there’s so much preying on people’s brains,” Goldberg says. “I just want a little silliness and who’s sillier than me?”
Rumors of another Sister Act have persisted for years, but it took another long-in-the-works sequel to a ’90s favorite to make it a reality. When Disney+ forged ahead with its current streaming blockbuster, Hocus Pocus 2, Goldberg realized that both ’90s kids and the children of ’90s kids were ready to see St. Francis Academy nun’s choir back in action.
“They managed to get Hocus Pocus 2 out,” she says, laughing. “So if they can do Hocus Pocus, they can get Sister Act out.” Funnily enough, both franchises share the same scene-stealer. Fan favorite Sanderson Sister, Kathy Najimy, appeared in both Sister Act film as Sister Mary Patrick, and Goldberg gave her co-star a status update on the third film — which will be produced by Tyler Perry — when Najimy appeared on The View last week.
Goldberg confirms that she expects to see a script for Sister Act 3 by the end of October, which means the movie could potentially be available to stream around the 2023 holiday season. Right now, the thing she’s most excited to learn about the movie is which songs her choir will be belting out after the first film featured heavenly covers of “My Guy” and “I Will Follow Him,” among other favorites. “God only knows what we’ll be singing, but it’ll be fun!”
Goldberg also provided some insight into a key scene from the first Sister Act, which celebrated its 30th anniversary over the summer. Midway through the film, Delores sneaks out to a bar filled with unsavory characters in her full habit, and then has to usher Sister Mary Patrick and Sister Mary Robert (Wendy Makkena) out of the joint lest they get into any trouble. The sequence can’t help but recall a PG-rated version of Eddie Murphy’s far more profane visit to a redneck bar in 48 Hrs., which was released a decade earlier. But Goldberg says that coincidence likely didn’t occur to the film’s creative team, which included the late director Emile Ardolino and screenwriter Paul Rudnick.
“I don’t think they realized there was a correlation,” she say, suggesting that she saw the resemblance at the time. “I think they just though, ‘Oh, let’s put nuns in a bar!’ It was like ‘OK? You know there’s [this other] scene. Never mind.’ So you just do it. Hopefully we can do something even more fun [in Sister Act 3] when we get the script up and running.”
Sister Act and Sister Act 2 are currently streaming on Disney+
