The Meryl Streep/Philip Seymour Hoffman drama Doubt has taken a few hits lately, with Variety critic Todd McCarthy calling Streep’s turn as a nun “a questionable central performance.” The film, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (a past Best Original Screenplay winner for Moonstruck), is still a strong contender for all the big prizes. My colleague Carrie Bell attended its L.A. premiere earlier this week and spoke to Shanley and his cast; here’s what they had to say about all the buzz.
John Patrick Shanley You can’t set out to do something with the plan to get an Oscar. I guarantee you that you’d never win with that attitude. I have been lucky enough to win one and I don’t think going in people thought Moonstruck was going to be an Oscar movie. So when buzz starts happening, you think, I hope I survive this awards crush. It is a job in itself to try to win awards. There are people who specialize in that. And if anything goes wrong they’re not going to blame Meryl. They’re not gonna blame Phil. They’re gonna come to me. If you don’t like it, I’m the problem.
Philip Seymour Hoffman I welcome the awards buzz because serious movies like this need that to draw more people to the theater. I didn’t just show up here tonight as a masochistic act: I have such self-loathing issues that I thought I’d show up for a movie that I didn’t believe in. No, I think that the movie is a really great piece of cinema and writing and I think that John deserves the recognition. He did an amazing job with the film. Buzz is buzz and it gets created on everything. You just hope the buzz coming in your direction is positive.
Amy Adams I am excited that Philip is so excited for the Oscar buzz. I really respect his opinion. If I wasn’t in the film and I didn’t know how good it was, I would go see Doubt based on Philip’s recommendation. I agree that John deserves recognition. I think the script is brilliant. It is a very good adaptation and his direction isn’t too shabby either. And I can’t say enough good things about Viola and Meryl and Philip. They are all tremendous. And if everyone else gets recognized and I didn’t, I would still be thrilled. It is a team mentality. It is mostly the four of us on screen and we got to watch each other work up close and personal. You never go in with expectations of awards, although at this point maybe Meryl could with her 14 nominations, but when I watch the film, I am blown away by their performances. If those accolades come, fantastic. If they don’t, it doesn’t take anything away in my eyes.
Viola Davis Everyone is asking me how it feels and to be honest with you it is making my behind this tight [makes a fist]. It makes you very, very nervous. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. You don’t want to lose perspective. I consider myself No. 1, a grounded person and No. 2, an actor.
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Big movie stars are fleeing the Best Actor race in droves these days. Now comes word that Ralph Fiennes’ camp has decided to place him in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Reader. (Astute EW readers will notice that I put Fiennes in the lead-actor column in my Oscar Race feature in this week’s issue, out today; I was merely following the Weinstein Co.’s directives, which apparently have been overruled.) Certainly the swap now means Fiennes has a better shot at scoring a nomination: He’s said to be excellent in the film, but since he shares his role with newcomer David Kross, he probably lacks the sufficient screen time to make the Best Actor cut.
