Cherry Jones
PUBLICITY PHOTO
Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actress Cherry Jones has a deep association with nuns, and a film in which she plays one is leading her to Charlottesville.
That film is Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child, and she plays Sister Joanne, a character far-removed from the unyielding Sister Aloysius, the role she originated in the Broadway smash hit, Doubt: A Parable.
Joanne and Aloysius are "apples and oranges," says Jones, 53. Mother and Child's Joanne is "a whole other category of nun, in a very different situation," she says.
"This will probably be my last nun for a number of years," Jones quips. "I'm nunned-out."
Moving on shouldn't strain Jones, whose varied work ranges from steady movie character parts to other Broadway leads (including her very un-nun-like, Tony-nominated role in A Moon for the Misbegotten) to her Emmy-winning turn as America's first female president, Allison Taylor, on the wildly popular series, 24.
But, for now, she's delighted to have worked with Rodrigo Garcia, whose Mother and Child script and cast (including Naomi Watts and Samuel Jackson) enticed Jones. His cordial direction didn't hurt either.
"He was a dreamboat," says Jones. "Everyone loved him, men and women, but he clearly adores and appreciates women in a profound way. And he's a beautiful writer... [and] a great artist...
"He knows what he wants," she continues, "but, also, he knows artistically how to help an actor get there."
As Jones bubbles about Garcia and other co-workers, she seems wholly unlike the rigid character that won her the 2005 Tony for Best Actress, Doubt's Sister Aloysius.
Set in 1964, John Patrick Shanley's controversial Doubt deals with the clash of wills between Jones' Aloysius, a Catholic school principal, and the school's new, liberal priest. She accuses him of misconduct with the school's first black student, which leads to what could be either a witch-hunt or righteous punishment.
The riveting play predictably drew intense responses. One night, Jones recalls, she uttered the play's closing lines, the lights dimmed, and a woman in the second row of a very intimate theater space growled, "May she burn in hell."
Her concerned actor friend Alvin Epstein even asked Jones if she needed a bodyguard.
But drastic measures weren't necessary. Doubt drew Catholics in droves.
"We depended on having Catholics in the audience every night just to get the laughter going because," she explains, largely Protestant audiences "just didn't know that it was all right to laugh at this ridiculous woman."
Jones even received heartfelt letters with messages like, "If only I had had you when I needed a Sister Aloysius."
"I loved Aloysius," she says. "I like to think that if I had seen the play, I would have walked away in doubt."
Since then, Jones has frequently taken movie character roles, including appearances in The Cradle Will Rock (1999) and Ocean's Twelve (2004). Most recently, she's worked on the upcoming Amelia and a new Jodie Foster film.
Meanwhile, she hopes to return to the stage. Despite the Tony and over 700 performances of Doubt, she says, "I don't feel like a grande dame on Broadway: I feel like a hardworking actress who is as insecure as the next person as to what will come my way next...
"But I've been around long enough, and I'm professional enough that I do know in my gut that I will get another job."
Age: 53
Most overrated virtue? Feeling virtuous, but that's probably not a virtue, anyway.
People would be surprised to know: I'm a poor reader.
What would you change about yourself? I have a slight inability to focus, and my lack of intellect.
Proudest accomplishment? At this moment in my life, being available to my family when they need me.
People find most annoying about you: I may not be self-involved enough yet to answer that... No comment.
Whom do you admire? Obama, and my sister.
Favorite book? I don't really have favorites.
Subject that causes you to rant? Health care.
Biggest 21st-century thrill? Showing my mother the view out of a window at 37,000 feet on iChat. She hasn't flown in many years-- she's not in good health.
Biggest 21st-century creep out? The loss of our newspapers.
What do you drive? Prius.
In your car CD player right now: Nothing-- I'm an NPR junkie.
Next journey? Tomorrow, to New York City.
Most trouble you've ever gotten in: No comment.
Regret: No comment.
Favorite comfort food: A grilled cheese sandwich from time-to-time, though I no longer have a gall bladder which makes my enjoyment of grilled cheese sandwiches almost obsolete.
Always in your refrigerator: Carrots.
Must-see TV: Frontline.
Describe a perfect day: A hike up Mount Desert in Maine, coming down the other side and skinny-dipping and then going up another one, coming down that one and skinny-dipping, and then having a fabulous meal with a nice bourbon, with at least one friend.
Walter Mitty fantasy: To have supernatural flexibility, like a bird or a cat for about 24 hours... and not get into trouble.
Who'd play you in the movie? Someone with a ridiculously malleable face... and big cheeks.
Most embarrassing moment? Congratulating someone on a pregnancy who was not pregnant.
Best advice you ever got? Never confuse your self-worth with your professional success or failure.
Favorite bumper sticker: I don't have one.
~
Cherry Jones will appear at a sneak preview of Mother and Child at 7:30pm Saturday, November 7, at the Paramount Theater along with director/writer Rodrigo Garcia, producer Julie Lynn, and critic David Edelstein.
#