No Doubt about Streep's talents

9 months ago 31st Jan 08:15

Fresh from her 15th Academy Award nomination, Meryl Streep was awarded the Best Actress prize at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony. The trophy is the second she has taken home for her role as strict disciplinarian Sister Aloysius in new movie 'Doubt' - she was the joint recipient, alongside Anne Hathaway, of the Critics Choice Award at last year's Broadcast Film Critics Association ceremony. She's also up for the Best Actress award at this year's BAFTAs, which is just one more nomination to add to the 80-plus she has achieved through her 30-year career.

Despite the glowing feedback she has received about her portrayal of the suspicious nun, Meryl insists she does not enjoy awards season and would much rather promote a film which was released in the summer. "At the moment I'm always being asked about awards, how it feels to be nominated," she explained. "And I have to say it's just so much more fun to publicise a film in July, because you talk about the film. You don't talk about the horse race that is awards ceremonies which is a different thing all together. That has to do with the marketing and jockeying between studios and campaigns and it's a political thing."

The 59-year-old actress - who has won over 60 accolades - also dislikes the pressure awards ceremonies put on actors and actresses. While many detractors have criticised Kate Winslet for her overly-emotional acceptance speech at this year's Golden Globe Awards, Meryl insists it is easy to pass judgment when you are not the person on the stage.

Vibrant and charismatic, he is determined to breathe new life into the stuffy customs of the school

"I don't have any tips for acceptance speeches because you're out of your own body in that moment when they call your name," she explained. "I think everybody makes a fool of themselves in their own way and the ones who are the happiest are the ones who are sitting at home watching it all.

It's a beautiful position, the one on the couch. When you're there it's hard to manage your emotions." 'Doubt' - which has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Screenplay, three BAFTAs and was up for five Golden Globes - is set in 1964, and sees Meryl plays a nun who is also the principle of a school which has recently admitted its first black pupil, Donald Miller.

"I'd seen the play years before and I thought it was a great, great, great play and I still feel that. I thought it was extraordinary, so when John Patrick Shanley, who wrote the play, came calling I thought, 'I sure would like a crack at that Sister Aloysius,' " Meryl explains. "Like all really, really, really good pieces of literature this will hold a lot of different interpretations, you'll see this play over and over and over again. But I'm really proud of this, of what we did."

A strict disciplinarian, Sister Aloysius is as feared by staff as she is by her pupils - naughty children sent to see the Principle are the object of sympathy, rather than ridicule, for their classmates.

In contrast, the school's Priest Father Flynn (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is loved by all. Vibrant and charismatic, he is determined to breathe new life into the stuffy customs of the school. "I would describe him as a modern thinker," Philip explains. "He has a way of looking at faith, religion and lot of things in life that I think challenges the status quo of how the church is run."

Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn inevitable clash, but Philip insists the pair are not sworn enemies: "I think they're similar in a lot of ways. They're both very strong individuals who see things one way. She sees him as a threat to her way of life, her identity and her view of the church, and he sees her as a threat to how he wants to relate to the parishioners. And neither one is someone who will back down."

While Father Flynn enjoys long nights spent drinking, smoking, feasting and swapping lurid tales of members of his flock with other holy men, Sister Aloysius and the nuns in her order eat plain food washed down with milk, consumed in near silence.

It is one of the youngest members of Sister Aloysius' order who provides the catalyst to 'Doubt'. Sister James (played by Amy Adams) - loosely based on one of writer and director of the movie John Patrick Shanley's teachers - is idealistic and eager, determined to reach the children in a way her superior cannot. While other staff members send pupils to sit outside Sister Aloysius' office in an effort to scare them into behaving, Sister James would rather deal with the problem herself.

"I fell in love with the character," says Amy. "She's someone who really operates from her heart, from her soul and her faith. She believes in goodness."

Dutifully following Sister Aloysius' orders to come to her with any issues or problems she may have, Sister James decided to speak to her elder when she becomes concerned about the relationship between Donald and Father Flynn. Although she is keen to point out she is not accusing Father Flynn of anything sordid, once the seed is planted in Sister Aloysius' mind it grows at a rapid rate. The rest of the movie sees the nuns attempting to get to the bottom of the priest's relationship with Donald, with much of it detailing the harrowing effect such allegations can have on the accused, their alleged victim and also the accuser.

"The events that occur with Father Flynn shake Sister James' whole sense of reality and her sense of self," claims Amy. "They make her question things in a new way, and reveal how just one little seed of doubt can change everything. It's not that she loses her faith, but the way she sees things - her teaching, her sense of self, the way she understands God - is forever altered. She comes to see that what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another."