# Kerry Washington, Kara Young talk ‘The Whoopi Monologues’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMG6xjGyWO4

[00:00] Okay, I have been waiting for this.
[00:01] This is the way you kick off a week.
[00:03] We have two amazing award-winning women, Emmy winner Kerry Washington, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:09] [cheering]
[00:12] But wait, there's more.
[00:12] TONY WINNER KARAI YOUNG.
[00:15] [cheering]
[00:16] [applause]
[00:16] THEY ARE HERE TO TELL US ABOUT THE REVIVAL of the Whoopi Monologues.
[00:18] I so many are thrilled about this.
[00:21] Of course, we know your work on the screen, but you were really behind the scenes in making this happen.
[00:27] I remember 1984, the original, you know, on Broadway, on HBO, but it was a Broadway show.
[00:33] How did you get Whoopi back on board to do this again?
[00:36] What made you say, "This is the time."
[00:41] So, I saw the HBO special.
[00:43] My parents had it filmed.
[00:43] I used to watch it.
[00:44] I used to listen to it on a cassette tape over and over and over again.
[00:46] I memorized it.
[00:48] And this has always been a dream of mine to bring it to new audiences, to take on these characters, cuz I just it it changed my life, this show.
[00:55] But I wanted to do it with a team of actresses that I adore and respect.
[01:00] And admire, because I feel like it takes five of us to do what Whoopi Goldberg did, because she's a phenom.
[01:06] And these pieces are beautiful and important and funny and heartbreaking and all the things.
[01:10] So, she was really excited, and she allowed my production company, Simpson Street, to bring it back.
[01:15] And we're doing it at Lincoln Center, which is such a sacred theater space.
[01:18] So, it's really exciting.
[01:20] Cool.
[01:21] And that is something that, you know, Whoopi like that is a phenom.
[01:25] But now, multiple actresses to do what was a one-woman show.
[01:27] That's that is so much work.
[01:30] I've seen the one-person show.
[01:33] Yes.
[01:34] It is exhausting.
[01:35] It's exhausting just to do the one piece that we're each doing.
[01:37] Like, we leave every night like, I can't imagine doing yours and mine.
[01:42] Yeah.
[01:42] Yeah.
[01:43] Hey, let me ask you, Caralyn.
[01:44] Hi, it's so nice to meet you.
[01:46] I was really getting to know you backstage.
[01:47] Such a fan of your work.
[01:49] What was it like to embody Whoopi's words and these characters for you?
[01:53] Um well, you know, I'm still in process, and I will be in process till the last performance.
[01:59] Yeah.
[02:00] But to take on such an iconic role of Fantine and also uh I I feel incredibly connected to Fantine.
[02:12] And there's just I know so many Fantines in the world and I'm very I'm very happy to be honoring honoring the people who literally go unseen and unheard and ignored quite often.
[02:26] And so I'm I just feel honored and and very lucky to to be stepping into this role.
[02:33] Yeah, and I'm sure Whoopi appreciates that so much.
[02:35] Has it been It must It must be pretty special to to spend time with her.
[02:40] Wondering if she's given you any advice on this or life.
[02:44] Yeah, Whoopi's been incredibly supportive throughout the years that I've been on the stage and I just can't believe every time I see her after a show I'm It's Whoopi Goldberg.
[02:56] [laughter]
[02:57] That's wild to me.
[02:58] But she has given me advice and it and
[03:02] It really is like I do start the show.
[03:05] And so that is like you have you are setting that you are setting it off.
[03:10] You're setting it off.
[03:13] And so there there is that but also just encouragement.
[03:16] Yeah.
[03:17] And and belief and that holds so much power from her.
[03:20] So I feel I feel really honored.
[03:25] Yeah, being first up you really you you set the table and you set the tone for what is to come.
[03:29] Whoopi really wanted to be here.
[03:31] You know she wanted to be here.
[03:33] There's a volcano happening.
[03:35] Yes, but she did send a message here.
[03:37] She did.
[03:38] Here it is.
[03:39] It's breaking my heart that I'm not there with you all.
[03:42] But you know what?
[03:45] This show is great.
[03:45] These women have done a spectacular job and I'm I'm pleased to have kind of been the seed that began it, but they are they are not uh taking any prisoners.
[04:00] [laughter]
[04:01] Is that accurate?
[04:02] You know what?
[04:02] I'll say that statement.
[04:04] From Whoopi is such a testament to who she is.
[04:05] She did more than plant the seed.
[04:07] I mean, she really built the framework, the road map for so many of us in this business.
[04:13] That's part of what inspired me to do this is I would talk to so many actresses who would say, "That show changed my life."
[04:16] "That show changed my understanding of what was possible."
[04:18] "That show inspired me to be who I am today."
[04:20] So, it wasn't just planting the seed.
[04:23] I mean, she's really She did that show because she wanted people to see her, but now we get to say, "See us, all of us."
[04:31] That's the level of generosity in her work.
[04:33] And this is your production company doing this.
[04:35] It is.
[04:35] It is.
[04:35] I also want to say we're being led by the incredible Whitney White,
[04:39] Yes.
[04:39] who's a Tony nominated, brilliant director of stage, and she's just doing the most wonderful job honoring Whoopi and bringing helping us bring our best selves forward.
[04:50] What do you What do you hope people take away from the show?
[04:54] It's such a hard question, you know, because the the material is Yeah, cuz that's our whole family, our company.
[05:02] Um I really hope it's interesting, you know, at Simpson.
[05:05] Street, I think we work really hard to take stories that are about people that are at the margins and center them because we really believe that everybody has the right to feel like they are the lead character in the story of their lives.
[05:14] And that's what this piece does.
[05:16] It takes women whose stories we want to people who maybe you walk by at the park or you avoid eye contact on the subway or you don't want to look at at the beach.
[05:25] We put these women front and center on the stage and we say, "Hear us.
[05:28] Love us.
[05:29] Open your hearts."
[05:30] And um and it's funny and it's wonderful.
[05:34] I just I want people to feel the way I felt when I saw it when I was in my single digits as a child.
[05:38] I want people to feel delighted and inspired and entertained and all the things.
[05:43] You and your single digits and here I was I was it.
[05:44] I was a little bit more than the single [laughter] when I was watching it, but still had the same kind of impact.
[05:48] And for you two, when you first saw it?
[05:51] Oh, oh yeah.
[05:52] A a teacher I I I had always known about it, but a teacher like re-introduced me to it.
[05:57] It was like, "You need to watch this."
[05:59] And totally blew my mind.
[06:01] And it's it feels so um it feels like what a time to to
[06:06] Resurrect this material and and and put five women um doing the monologues now.
[06:13] Now it's not just Whoopi.
[06:14] It's it's it's like we're we're extensions of her in this really magical way.
[06:20] Um and it you know, what the the stuff that we're doing on the stage and you know, it's at some points it's it's reminiscent to me of like Enta Da Zaki and and like what we're creating is something so beautiful, but really honoring Whoopi Goldberg in in the ways that we that we must because this material is so iconic to all of us.
[06:42] Oh, I know I know that that that is the snap.
[06:44] That you're so hip.
[06:45] You're so hip, Cara, Carrie, thank you.
[06:47] Thank you.
[06:48] Thank you.
[06:49] Thank you.
[06:50] Thank you.
[06:50] I shall see you there.
[06:52] And we got a lot of people to know previews for the Whoopi monologues begin tomorrow.
[06:55] Oh, good luck.
[06:56] BREAK A LEG.
[06:57] ALL RIGHT.
[06:57] COME ON.
[06:57] YOU'RE READY.