When Doubt came out in 2008 the panel was pretty much split down the middle, it seemed. Half seemed to love Meryl’s Aloysius giving it endless best of citations and the other half hated using Cherry Jones apparently atypical incarnation. I’ve never seen the lovely Jones on stage, so I can’t accredit the latter. I wasn’t too fond of Streep in Doubt. She was fine, but I hated her take on the character. In fact as someone said, Doubt seems like the ideal film that could benefit from a recasting – even though it’s so recent. You seemed to agree with me since six of you tried your hand at the whole casting gig, and I don’t kid when I say I prefer all six casts to the actual film’s cast. This is Andrew from Encore’s World of Film & TV by the way.
Jude from All That Film chose the following:
Michelle Pfeiffer as Sister Aloysius, Peter Sarsgaard as Father Flynn, Maggie Gylenhaal as Sister James and Audra McDonald as Mrs. Miller
I have to say that seeing Audra’s name there filled me with odd delight. I am ridiculously fond of the woman and I would say she’d be a good pick to bring all the emotion to the small but pivotal role of Mrs. Miller. The other choices aren’t bad either, though I’m wondering just how many dubious characters Sarsgaard is going to be playing…
Walter from The Silver Screening Room chose:
Diane Keaton as Sister Aloysius, Linus Roach as Father Flynn, Jenna Malone as Sister James, and Whoopi Goldberg as Mrs. Miller
The one that stuck out here was Keaton and I actually love the chance of seeing her in this role. Wouldn’t it be nice seeing Sister Aloysius without knowing she’s obviously bad? But is she really that bad? Walter commented that Keaton deserves more than she gets these days and I do wish she’d get a nice plum role.
CS from Big Thoughts From a Small Mind chose:
Joan Allen as Sister Aloysius, Paul Giamati as Father Flynn, Emily Blunt as Sister James and Taraji P. Henson as Mrs. Miller
Joan is perhaps an actress in the vein of Meryl, but a little more subtle I’d say. She’s not exactly soft, and I suppose her Sister Aloysius would be a bit of a bitch, but I do like the thought of her here. My favourite cast member of the actual film was Amy Adams, still Emily Blunt piques my interest even more. Blunt has the ability to play soft without being too naïve and she would be good as Sister James.
Peter Chan of My Situated Laundry picked:
Joan Allen as Sister Aloysius, Daniel Day Lewis as Father Flynn, Natalie Portman as Sister James and Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Miller
I did believe that Seymour Hoffman was the best of the supporting actor nominees that year, but the thought of my idol Day Lewis as Father Flynn does make me salivate a little. I wonder how he’d play the role. It’s not the obvious choice for the role, but I don’t doubt that he’d do it better than all.
Fitz of Counter Culture chose the following:
Sally Field as Sister Aloysius, Sam Rockwell as Father Flynn, Emily Blunt as Sister James and Regina King as Mrs. Miller
Like with Keaton the thought of Sally Field as Sister Aloysius is provocative. She did make her career playing the Flying Nun, but I suppose Aloysius would probably have her breakfast. It’s interesting that he too identified Emily Blunt as a candidate for Sister James.
Heather from Movie Mobsters chose:
Nicole Kidman as Sister Aloysius, Kevin Spacey as Father Flynn, Natalie Portman as Sister James and Angela Bassett as Mrs. Miller
Angela Bassett as Mrs. Miller makes me drool even more than Audra. It’s not that I didn’t like Viola Davis in the role, I’m not sure what it is but I never really found the role to be anything profound in her hands. It was good, but little else. Still, if any current Hollywood actress could craft something special from this it would be Bassett who sadly has gone role-less for some time.
Well you voted (and as usual I didn’t), and after a rather close competition CS emerged as the winner with the most votes.
Thank you to all the participants (and voters) for their contribution and congratulations to CS.
What do you think of our re-imagined cast of Doubt?
Saw some video clips of Cherry Jones/Brian O’Byrne in the original B’way cast of Doubt, at the climatic scene of “Did you give wine to Donald Muller?” In the stage version, the two are in an intense death match….very loud.
In the filmed version, camera up-close, Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman take the same lines slowly and quietly.
How you choose to do these lines will determine the ‘correct’ cast.
*** **** *****
Fun version of Doubt, using superstars:
SIster Aloysius: Jamie Lee Curtis
Sister James: Lindsay Lohan
Father Flynn: Ryan Phillippe
Mrs. Muller: Oprah Winfrey
Cherry Jones is on 24. Enough said.
Allen did great in The Contender as did Bridges and Oldman.
Spelling correction for posting: obv shld read: ‘climactic’ scene of…
Also, was the point of your posting just to show that there is no way that ‘Joan Allen’ should star as Sister Aloysius, (much less Kevin Spacey as Father Flynn)?
If so, then I agree. It is easy to imagine Broadway Superstar Cherry Jones in several of Joan Allen’s film roles, but there is no way that J Allen could ‘be’ Sister Aloysius.
There have been some comments elsewhere that Cherry Jones would have been the better choice for some of Joan Allen’s film roles (The Contender, and her roles as CIA operative Pamela Landy in the Bourne series). Joan Allen as Sister Aloysius? No.
The producers of the movie Doubt wanted Meryl Streep in the lead, and that is that. So I think that Cherry Jones should have at least been offered the part of Father Flynn,.as she could have easily slapped on a mustache and would hv been better than Phil Hoffman.
Kevin Spacey as Father Flynn? Yuck.
I like CS’ picks, but I would steal Peter Sarsgaard from Jude’s, instead of Giammati. Giammati’s great, we all know it, but I see Sarsgaard as a better fit for a potential molester.
(And in case that last comment seems like a knock on Sarsgaard, or me calling him creepy, I love Sarsgaard, especially his ability to play characters whose moral compasses you can’t figure out.)
ls well, joan is one of my favourite actresses even i like the thought of diane in this role.
fitz allen was good in the contender, but i thought her real tour de force last decade was the upside of anger.
vancetastic i didn’t think it was a knock at sarsgaard. i know he creeps many people out though. someone said that as soon as they saw him in an education they knew he was a bad character.
Great showing this time out. Nicely done all around, Andrew (and casting agents).