'They Were Rocks for Me': Whoopi Goldberg Opens Up About Friendships with Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve

Whoopi Goldberg opened up about friendships with the late actors Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams.

Goldberg, 68, and The View co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines were joined by Reeve’s three children, Matthew, 44, Alexandra, 40, and William, 32, during the Thursday, Sept. 19 episode of the daytime talk show to talk about the upcoming documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. (The Superman actor welcomed Matthew and Alexandra with his former partner Gae Exton, and William with wife Dana.)

“My friend Whoopi popped up,” Hostin, 55, said. “He directed Whoopi and Glenn Close in 1997’s In the Gloaming, one of his first projects after the accident about the AIDS crisis ... Whoopi, what do you remember working with Chris?”

“Well, I was shocked that he called me,” Goldberg, who is among the celebrities interviewed in the film, began. “I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I want you.’ I was like, ‘Okay,’ ” she said. “He said, ‘Don’t you wanna know what it is?’ I said, ‘No. No. I don’t want to know. Whatever you want.’ ” 

Reeve’s directorial debut also starred Robert Sean Leonard and Bridget Fonda. The made-for-television movie chronicled the final days of a young man, Danny (Leonard), who was diagnosed with late-stage AIDS.

Goldberg remarked on how fortunate she was to have Reeve and Williams as friends. “I was lucky enough to have Robin and Christopher in my life, yeah, and so to me, those two men were rocks. They were rocks for me,” she said.

“I didn't see them all the time, bu -

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t they were never far from my soul because they taught us how to actually figure out how to move forward,” Goldberg continued. “I just had the greatest time. Had the greatest time. I was lucky.” 

Williams died by suicide at 63 in August 2014. Reeve died from heart failure at age 52 in October 2004, nine years after a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed, in a wheelchair and dependent on a ventilator to breathe.

"Robin was Dad's best friend, and you show up for your friends," Will previously told PEOPLE. "What shone through in that was just their love and respect for each other, and that never wavered."

The documentary includes interviews with Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels and Close. Close, 77, spoke of Reeve and Williams’ friendship in the documentary, noting, “I always felt that if Chris was still around, Robin would still be alive.”

Along with conversations with Reeve’s friends and family, there is archival footage of Williams and Reeve’s late wife Dana, who died in 2006 from lung cancer.

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The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on ABC. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in select theaters on Sept. 21 and will have an encore presentation on Sept. 25, which would have been the actor's 72nd birthday.

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