Apple TV+'s new animated film Luck takes audiences to a world where good and bad fortunes are manufactured and randomly dispersed among the human world. In the so-called Land of Luck, The Captain — voiced by Whoopi Goldberg — oversees her organization's management of lucky pennies and the cats who carry them to and from the human world. Luck's main story sees notoriously unlucky Sam Greenfield (Eva Noblezada) cross paths with a lucky black cat named Bob (Simon Pegg) and embark on a journey across dimensions to learn the true meaning of luck, family, and friendship.
Goldberg is widely recognized for her roles in Ghost, The Color Purple, and the Sister Act films, as well as for co-hosting the ABC talk show The View since 2007. Aside from Luck, her recent voice-acting credits include Amphibia, M.O.D.O.K., and BoJack Horseman. In the future, Goldberg will star in Sister Act 3 and appear in 2022's Till, Chinonye Chukwu's film about the story of Emmett Till and his mother.
Screen Rant interviewed Goldberg about the importance of The Captain in Luck's story and the film's overall message to the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Screen Rant: What sparked your interest in joining the cast of Luck?
Whoopi Goldberg: They asked me [laughs]. That's what sparked my interest. They said, "Would you like to do this?" and I was like, "Yes, please."
Can you describe your experience of playing this character and what was your favorite part about her?
Whoopi Goldberg: I love that I was a leprechaun because, let's be honest, you never see brown leprechauns. You just don't see them. So, I wanted to make sure that that mythology of the leprechaun's story is also given to all the other people on the planet. People just think leprechauns come from one place — they don't. They come from all over the world.
This allows us to prove it, because there she is. She's a little brown leprechaun — not in a big silver box, but still, she's a little brown leprechaun. She has a good soul and really wants life to stay the way she expects it to be. Then of course, things shift, and she has to deal with change and how to make things work, and has to change her idea of what good luck and bad luck are. Because as it turns out, it's all part of the same sphere.
The release of Luck falls during a time when a two-and-a-half-year-long pandemic is one of many sources of pain and hardship for so many people. Can you speak on what it means to offer a message of perseverance in this film considering what’s happening in the real world?
Whoopi Goldberg: Well, this is what I can tell you. We came through this pandemic and we lost a lot of people, and a lot of really awful things we learned. But we also got a lot of amazing things because people were forced to be in their homes with their families. You couldn't just go off on your phone; you had to be at your table talking about things. Suddenly families are talking, and making things together, and dancing together, and being silly together. Lovers are finding themselves in the same position. People who don't have kids suddenly have to really talk to each other.
We saw that the canals in Venice cleared up. There were fish in the canals! We saw air clean up and you suddenly realize, "Yeah, we can make a difference." We've seen it. It was forced on us, but we saw that it happened. I think people didn't realize how isolated we all were from each other in the same house.
The pandemic, for a lot of people, gave families back to them. Not for everybody, but for a lot of people. What this movie does is, it showed us if we're present, we can actually see the good in what looks like a terrible thing. How do we take that out and hone it, and hold onto the good? This is a movie about hope, and change, and laughter, and family, and who is family, and what does family look like. Who knows who any of us are, really, at our core? Most of us I think are fairly decent people. There are some not-so-decent people, but I think most of us are trying at least to be decent. And that's what the movie says. You do your best. Just try. You might see the lucky penny if you're open to it.
Luck Synopsis
From Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation comes the story of Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world! Suddenly finding herself in the never-before-seen Land of Luck, she must unite with the magical creatures there to turn her luck around.
Catch our other interview with Luck stars Simon Pegg, Flula Borg, Jane Fonda, and Eva Noblezada, as well as director Peggy Holmes.
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Luck releases on Friday, August 5 on Apple TV+.