Bette Midler admits she turned down Sister Act because she was ‘afraid’ to wear nun’s habit: ‘How crazy is that?’
Bette Midler turned down the chance to star in Sister Act because she didn’t want to wear a nun costume, she has now admitted.
The 77-year-old star is known to have passed on the chance to feature in the 1992 comedy film as Deloris Van Cartier, aka Sister Mary Clarence, but has now identified it as the one role she does regret turning down.
A multi-talented singer and actress who has appeared in other popular hits like Beaches, Hocus Pocus and its recent sequel and The First Wives Club, it still places Bette in the ‘Tom Selleck rejecting Indiana Jones’ club.
The two-time Oscar nominee also gave further details on the reason for turning down the movie, explaining, rather bizarrely, that it was because she was ‘afraid’ of wearing the habit.
‘They came to me with Sister Act and I said, “My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.” Can you believe that? How off the wall is that? How crazy is that?’ she said in a new interview.
‘(Walt Disney Studios boss) Jeffrey Katzenberg called me every day, “Please, please.” I stood my ground because I was really afraid of the costume. Isn’t that amazing? I can wear anything but a nun’s habit?’
The lead role ultimately went to Whoopi Goldberg and Bette praised her performance in the movie, which proved to be a big success.
She joked to Variety’s podcast: ‘Whoopi wore it all the way to the bank. So God bless her – and she was perfect for it.’
The first movie spawned a quick-fire sequel, with Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit out at the end of 1993, welcoming Whoopi’s returning co-stars Dame Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena and Mary Wickes, as well as newcomers to the franchise Lauryn Hill, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
In 2022, Ghost actor Whoopi, 67, delighted fans when she confirmed another sequel to Sister Act was indeed on the way.
Understandably since then, she has also taken the opportunity during a One Show appearance in December to beg Dame Maggie to join, saying: ‘I will shoot whatever you want if you say yes. I love you.’
Despite her distaste for the nun’s habit, Bette has been happy to wear a number of outrageous costumes during her prolific screen career, saying that she’s ‘worn them all’, running right through ‘an old lady, a young lady, a witch, a mermaid, a showgirl, a stripper [and] a bad lounge singer’, calling her experiences ‘a blast’.
Bette also had the chance to play the antagonist Annie Wilkes in the classic horror film Misery, but also famously turned down the part too, which was taken by Kathy Bates.
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