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This brings up the issue that has really permeated our culture which seems to demand an answer to anything clearly meant to be presented as ambiguous. Catharsis junkies, I believe, is the term for these people.

Why isn't it an issue when movies (mostly Hollywood blockbusters) spell out every plot point and underline every "theme" often inflating the running times to at least a half hour beyond what the film's length should have been?

Questions like that are why I rarely do roundtables anymore.

The bummer is that there's a good question in there - does PSH's process have him not just figuring out what his character did or didn't do but also writing it out/going into it in detail? Did he consult with Shanley on it at all or did they act like agnostics about it all throughout shooting?

faraci nailed it...she didn't ask him if his character actually did something...she acknowledges there is doubt and asks him 'how important was it that he know what his character did' (implying that knowledge might inform his performance)...he could have just answered 'not important at all' or 'very important' but chose to rant instead...

I think his reluctance to speculate on "what really happened" is reasonable and appropriate; but his response was unnecessarily belittling. And that's the point. The "suffering fools gladly" comment is overboard.

Seeing all those bolded and capitalized words in this posting also makes me look forward to DOUBT! The Musical! Starring Nathan Lane as the dancing priest and Cloris Leachman as his zany nemesis.

if nathan lane is the priest there will be very little doubt...

...Kevin Spacey then perhaps?

''Seeing all those bolded and capitalized words in this posting also makes me look forward to DOUBT! The Musical! Starring Nathan Lane as the dancing priest and Cloris Leachman as his zany nemesis.'

'if nathan lane is the priest there will be very little doubt...'

jeff and scoot, bringing the funny :-D

"if nathan lane is the priest there will be very little doubt..."

Because he's gay, there would be very little doubt that he WAS a child molester? How dare you!

Just kidding.

A textbook case of a good question poorly asked. Hoffman says "of course" I thought it out. If tht's the case, then how does he create doubt if knows the answer?

Reminds me a bit of the Michael Bay tantrum when an interviewer asked him: "Were you thinking about 9/11 when you were creating all the destruction in TransFormers?" And he answered along the lines "Of course I was, you stupid lady. What kind of a fucking stupid ass question is that? That's one of the dumbest fucking questions I've ever heard." Very funny. I'm still not sure if Bay knew what the question was, not that it was relevant to TransFormers.

I suspect the folks who are siding with the questioner have not seen "Doubt." It's a dumb question, plain and simple.
In any case, it isn't PSH's job to "create doubt." It's the movie's. (Spoiler alert, I guess: And, by the way, Shanley has said repeatedly that he tells each actor who plays the priest -- and only that actor -- whether or not he did it. Intriguingly, I don't think Shanley has said if the guilt/innocence is the same for every actor.)

actually, chris, i side with the questioner and i've seen both the play and the film...not a dumb question (perhaps poorly worded though) and, apparently, not 'plain and simple'...

"How important is it to you to know what happened?" How on earth could he NOT know?

Jeff's "Doubt: The Musical" crack was a good one.
How long before someone announces a B'way musicalization of "Slumdog Millionaire" (done Bollywood-style, of course)?

Shanley consulted with all of the actors who played Flynn on Broadway about whether the character was guilty or not, so I'd imagine he did with Hoffman as well.

Already noted. See four posts before yours, Captain Zahn.

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