Tony Goldwyn Says Being an Unemployed Actor 'Was Like Having Leprosy.' Then “Ghost” Came Out
Tony Goldwyn Says Being an Unemployed Actor 'Was Like Having Leprosy.' Then “Ghost” Came Out
Virginia ChamleeFri, June 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC
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Tony GoldwynCredit: Getty; Everett -
Tony Goldwyn says he struggled as an unemployed actor before landing his breakout role in the 1990 film Ghost
Ghost, starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg, won two Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture
Goldwyn shared how Hollywood's perception of him changed overnight after the film's success, leaving him unsure how to handle it
Tony Goldwyn says that before landing his role in the 1990 film Ghost, he was an unemployed actor who felt like he "had the plague."
Ghost was one of the now 66-year-old Goldwyn's first major roles, following a string of smaller parts on series including St. Elsewhere, Matlock and Designing Women.
The film starred Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar for her role, and it was also nominated for Best Picture and won the award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
In an interview on the HBO Max Talking Pictures podcast, Goldwyn (who is part of a prominent Hollywood dynasty as his paternal grandfather, Samuel Goldwyn, was a founding partner of the studio Metro Goldwyn-Mayer) said of the period before landing the role of Carl in Ghost: "Being an unemployed actor, no one — it was like I had the plague."
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Patrick Swayze and Tony Goldwyn in GhostCredit: Everett
"It's just so funny," he continued. "You go to these parties, people go, 'Oh, hi, your job, what do you do?' I'd say, 'Oh, I'm an actor.' And they'd go, 'Oh,' and then they'd walk away.... it was like having, you know, like leprosy or something."
But Ghost, said Goldwyn, changed everything.
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"And then Ghost comes out, and instantaneously, all of those same people who were mean to me were, like, hugging me like I was their old friend, and they always loved me," he said. "And I was like — I didn't know how to manage that."
Goldwyn added: "I'd go to a party and they'd say, like, 'Tony! Oh, remember we had dinner a couple years ago? I knew you were going to be a big star.' "
"And so that, I was like, Oh my God, how do I handle this Hollywood thing? I was not a natural at it, put it that way."
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Asked about a potential remake of Ghost, Goldwyn told Today in 2025: ""I heard that!"
he added, however, that he likely would not be involved, saying, "I'll be in the theater with my tub of popcorn," and adding, "the movie still holds up."
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
