Character Breakdown: DOUBT Cast Unpacks Their Roles

She has spent a lifetime in service and in service to Mother Church. Whether or not she's

been in service to the Godhead remains to be seen. She is devoted to a particular religious

institution and she's damaged personally, which aren't we all in some way. She's got

a lot of corners and she's got a huge ego. And that part is really interesting to me

because I've spoken with the nuns that we're researching with, Sisters of Charity, and

they talk about those who choose the life of a nun and the ones who like being different

and special and have a special costume and whose ego enhances their position as opposed

to the possibility of humbleness being part of what you offer. And Sister Aloysius, we're

still investigating, all of us, so please, but certainly I know there's a rich pot of possibility

I play Father Brendan Flynn and I have some ideas about this priest that I'm not sure

I should say before people come to the show, but suffice it to say that I think this is

his life's work. And there's a generation of people that are fewer and further between

which are people who are willing or wanting to give their lives to service. And that was

very moving to me when I looked at the play from that perspective

I mean all the characters in this are so beautifully written. It's just a remarkable piece of writing

and it's so wonderful as an actor to dive in and feel like, oh there's just an ocean

here I can just keep exploring. Sister James is a really lovely character. She's easy to

love. She's really trying her best to be kind and a good Christian and do right by everyone

and she's also really desperately trying not to disappoint anyone which makes things hard

for her. I play Mrs. Muller who is the mother of Donald Muller who is in 8th grade at St. Nicholas

Catholic School in the Bronx. I won't spoil anything. What I love about her, she's so

different from me. She's very, very different from me in so many ways. So the challenge

of trying to figure out how to inhabit her is something that I'm going to love working on

She has a strength and she has a fight in her and she has a love, sort of an indescribable

love for her son that I admire. Even though it's complicated. It's very complicated

Both Liev and Tyne have particularly ferocious intellects and they circle their parts like

house breakers and there was a certain moment for both of them where you suddenly saw the

character emerge from them and it was thrilling and unexpected, the angle and the size, the

beauty of what was coming out of them was electrifying. And then you add Zoe and Quincy into the mix. They're two of my favorite actors too. What

has that been like listening to them sort of learn this? Well Zoe Kazan, she sort of plays the role of Sister James who's kind of us, the kind

of wants to, you know, as a well-meaning person and is trying to make her way in a

complex world. And there's a basic sympathetic quality that Zoe has that really works very

well in the role. And at the same time under that is a wicked little sense of humor. And so that really

adds a little dose of spice which the play enjoys. And then Quincy Tyler Bernstein has

a depth of sincerity and history that brings a kind of different, she has a modern thing

going on as well as a period thing that is really helpful to make the play take a turn

that it hasn't before