Sister Act | 3
Show Notes:
On Pop Culture Makes Me Jealous the co-hosts of It's My Screen Time Too are here and we discuss Sister Act.
Katie and Deborah have been hosting their own podcast for years and in June of 2021, I was a guest on their show where we discussed Mitchell vs. the Machines. You can listen to that episode here
Sister Act (and it's sequel) is one of my all time favorites from childhood and I am thrilled these two delightful and intelligent women stopped by to indulge in conversation about this Whoopi Goldberg gem.
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Transcript:
Julia: Hey friends, it's Julia. And this is pop culture makes me jealous and on today's show the co-hosts of My Screen Time Too are here and we are talking. Sister Act.
SIster Act was first released on May 29th, 1992, and stars Whoopie Goldberg who plays Deloris van Cartier a Reno lounge singer who witnesses the mobster boyfriend, Vince played by Harvey Keitel commit murder. She panics and flees to the police station where they decide to relocate her to convent in San Francisco, where she disrupts the quiet lives of the nunnery. She is then assigned to the choir who is in dire need of a revamp.
With our musical background, Dolores whips these sisters into a must-see event during church service. In 1992, Roger Ebert's review of the film offered no praise stating, "The trailer has high energy and whammo punchlines. The movie is sort of low key and contemplated and a little too thoughtful."
The Hollywood reporter, however, offered this, "It's a high concept idea plugged into a formulaic execution, but the formula has often proved to be tried and true, and doesn't fail here. The Whoopi Goldberg crowd will just eat it up. And Sister Act may make converts out of the rest of the public. The film's heavenly expectations and the box office should be filled with hallelujah.
Before we dive into the discussion, I want to introduce you to my guests. Deborah and Katie co-host the podcast. It's My Screen Time Too where they review TV and movies made for kids. Their show is funny and relatable because I mean, come on. Any parent with children knows how they've been sucked in to that vortex of kids' TV and their podcast makes you feel less alone about hating or loving the entertainment made for children.
Deborah Katie, welcome to the show.
BOTH: Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Julia: We're excited. Okay. So let's dive in. I want to start with the overall of the film. I actually rewatched it last night to prepare for this. In 1992, Dolores Barclay wrote in the article for Tulsa World, "Sister Act is outrageous fun and delicious deviltry. The laughs keep coming, but best of all, there's much humanity at work. It's a movie that just, pardon me, makes you feel darn good." In the article I referenced earlier about Roger from Roger Ebert, he went on to say, "the director Emile Ardolino does not have a touch for comedy. And his pacing is consistently to languid for his materia. He has no visual style at all. Every shot is the obvious textbook approach to such a degree that the film seems directed on autopilot, but at least Goldberg and her fellow nuns are able to create life in humor when the camera is upon them."
So let's start there. Do you agree with either of these statements? Katie Deborah do you want to kick us off?
Katie: I mean, do we. Slash should we expect a tour level filmmaking in, an early nineties children's movies?
Julia: No, not at all. So I'm rewatching this film last night. I grew up watching this film and I'm looking at it and the opening scene. I'm thinking. Yeah, no wonder. This is a movie that I watched at my grandparents' house and not my parents' house. Cause my parents would have been like, shut this down. Reno lounge singers. No.
Deborah: Yeah. I loved this movie when I was a kid and I haven't watched it since I was a kid and I loved it, rewatching it this week. And I don't know. Do you think Roger Ebert didn't like it? Cause it has an all female cast pretty much.
Julia: I love that. Yeah. That's a good point because it really is star stacked with female... And, you know, women, we were talking about this the other night at dinner, women comics don't get the credit they deserve even now. Yeah.
Deborah: And I just read an article. Where the movie nine to five was used as an, as an example. And it was just panned by, I think Roger Ebert, because it was all women and it was like anti patriarchy. And so that made me link, I don't know.
Julia: Is a Roger Ebert, a closet misogynist and we didn't know it?
BOTH: I know
Katie: It makes me want to do like a deep dive.
Julia: Yeah. Cause he was the gold standard. Did you guys ever watch Siskel and Ebert when they had their little review show and...
Deborah: Yes,
Julia: I watched that all the time.
Deborah: It was all about that thumbs.
Julia: Yes. Two thumbs up. I give a thumb up. I give it a thumb down. When they disagreed. It was like what's going on. I think Whoopie Goldberg is hilarious in this film and as an adult - so you guys know I'm based in California, so Reno's not that far from where I am. It's like a three hour drive.
And so to think about her, to think people love going to Reno, they love to vacation Reno. There's a lot of gambling actually think you can still smoke inside in in, in Reno I could be mistaken, but I think that was still a thing like within the last five years. So as an adult, the idea of like a Reno lounge singer is just hilarious to me, because then you grow up and you realize like, oh, Las Vegas is like, where it's at. Right? Like you've made it if you're a show girl in Las Vegas, like Johnny Cash, did it residency, Brittany Spears did a residency. Like there's all these big names through Vegas and then Reno is like, their like rejected sister.
Katie: I know it feels so quaint. Doesn't it like this, this like small town mobster and this small town lounge singer. It just, I don't know. It feels a little parochial in that way.
Julia: I do love how, this is just a personal preference- it is a pet peeve of mine when movies go to San Francisco and they only show the Golden Gate Bridge because realistically, coming from the angles that are usually discussed in whatever film or movie here or TV show here, Golden Gate Bridge isn't accessible. It's like a whole big workaround because it takes you into Marin County. That's north of San Francisco. So the shot when they show the Bay Bridge, which is links Oakland to San Francisco, like the mainland to San Francisco, I was like, "I forgot that! Sister Act! Yes. Give us the Bay Bridge!"
Katie: Just a nice moment of realism.
Julia: Truly because you know, when you're not in California, people assume the Golden Gate Bridge is how you can get from mainland to the, to the little island or whatever, and it's not, I mean, it is, like I said, it is if you're coming from Northern California, from Marin County, but it is completely unrealistic to go from where I live to take the golden gate bridge. It's like an extra hour and a half drive. Nobody wants that.
So we can't discuss this movie without discussing the cast. As we mentioned Whoopie Goldberg's in it. Who is still a huge name. Harvey Keitel he's in the film, but some other big names that we can talk about. Maggie Smith plays Mother Superior. Kathy Najimy plays Sister, Mary Patrick, who I just find her so delightful and Mary Wicks plays Sister Lazarus, but there are other recognizable faces throughout the entire movie.
Later on in that Hollywood Reporter article, they made the statement about Maggie Smith. And I think I agree, "...Apparently there is no role that Maggie Smith can't play to perfection. She does so much with so little effort that we can't help, but smile and admiration, every joyous moment she's on screen."
So let's start there. And then just to kind of like refresh everybody, Maggie Smith is coming off of Hook, starring Robin Williams, because that released the year before in 1991. And she's played the grownup aged Wendy. So considering the cast and the characters they play, let's talk about our favorites and why
Deborah: Whoopi Goldberg? Just, she was a childhood favorite of mine. I mean, mostly the Sister Act movies but also Ghost. Remember that movie?
Julia: Yeah, Ghost is great, but I first, I actually hadn't seen it before. And then last year in the pandemic, I was like, I need new movies. And my friend was like, you feel like crying? Like, yeah. I feel like crying. She was like, watch Ghost.
Deborah: Yeah. And then my brother and I were just kind of obsessed with like the audacity of maybe, and yourself Whoopie and going by that as your stage name when we were kids and she does her own singing. Even though she's not like, I don't think she came to the movie as a vocalist necessarily.
Julia: Yeah. I don't think so either.
Deborah: She's just so talented. I love her so much.
Katie: I love that she carries it off on pinash alone. Like, it doesn't matter what her singing voice sounds like.
Deborah: Right.
Julia: Yeah.
Katie: Okay. So deborah, you know, but Julia, maybe you don't, I'm kind of low key obsessed with comparing my current age to whatever age Tom Hanks was when he made a certain iconic movies.
Julia: I love that.
Katie: It's like how I judge my life progression, but here's a fun fact about Maggie Smith. She was only 58 years old. Like the poor woman has been playing the old lady for so long, even before she was old.
Deborah: That's really interesting.
Julia: That is really interesting. And that's funny that you bring that up because I remember in an interview, Meryl Streep had commented when she was doing press for, Into the Woods, everyone's like, oh, you're playing this witch, blah, blah. And she was like, yeah, I wasn't going to play a witch until I was in my sixties. Like, I've been getting calls for playing witches or old ladies for years. And I wasn't going to do that until I was in my sixties. So now to think about like Maggie Smith playing Wendy in Peter Peter Pan, yeah. Peter Pan Hook, and she's such an old, old lady in that movie.
Katie: Yeah. She's supposed to, supposed to be all infirm and we're supposed to be thinking she's going to croak any minute. She was 57 years old.
Julia: How cruel come on, Hollywood do better.
Katie: I know. Right. I mean props or her for making a career out of it. Like she stared into this gig and it's been really successful for how many years now? 30 years?
Julia: Yeah. I love her as Violet Crawley on Downton Abbey. I'm like, I can't wait to be that old granny uh, I want, and everyone's going to accept it cause I'm old and crotchety and yeah, slightly funny. Jennifer Lewis, I don't know if you all watch Blackish or familiar with the show. She plays Ruby Johnson on the show. I forgot that she was one of the Showgirls in the opening scene.
Deborah: Oh yeah.
Julia: Jennifer Lewis. Do you not age because you look exactly the same and this movie is almost 30 years old. Yeah.
Deborah: Can we talk a little bit about the costumes.
Julia: Absolutely. Let it go there.
Deborah: Delightful, colorful, shiny bedazzled, like bat, like they were wearing their street clothes, backstage scene and they looked so fabulous.
Julia: The scene where, um, that part of the scene where he delivers that purple mink to her. I was like, oh yeah, I forgot. And I'm thinking, cause I Love Lucy, that was the thing. Right. Every time she wanted mink, he, she and Ricky would get in a huge argument about it and then she'd get a mink coat and it was just fabulous and beautiful.
And then. Dolores van Cartier it's this purple mink jacket. And she's cooing over. It's gorgeous. It's fabulous. And I'm like, but is it though, because I feel like the fur coat you had on was much better.
And the gold lamet jacket that she had when they take her to the convent, I was like, that's strike. She's like that's dry, clean only please. Or can you get that dry clean girl? But I love the, um, when they go out into the community finally, and you see all of like the kids wearing, I felt like. This is exactly what high school kids or not exactly, but it feels like this is what high school kids are wearing now again.
Deborah: Yeah. That nineties street street style.
Katie: This movie is so bizarrely out of time, because you have these nineties fashions that are so clearly of the nineties, but then the whole crux of the movie is about the inherent appeal of sixties, girl groups. Right? I know we're going to talk about this later, but that's why I think the franchise can so easily be revived now in 2020, because the actual time that it takes place is kind of meaningless
Julia: and that concept of like Motown and is. I don't know how I think it's Barry Gordy is more Motown. I don't know how he did it, but he created a timeless era too. You know, it's very much rooted in the sixties, but it lives on forever. I don't know anybody who isn't familiar with these songs that they sort of convert to be about God. You know, and it's so clever how they did that. I thought, because it's such a seamless transition to be able to make them sort of a, an ode to Jesus. But I can't like for me as a kid, I was like, yeah, we'll be in Harvey guy, tell like, that's a thing, blah, blah, blah. But as an adult, I'm like, do I believe that there are lovers? Like, this feels awkward.
Deborah: I know I looked, I was curious about the age difference and there's a 15 year age difference, which for Hollywood that's right. If they were reversed Whoopie would be playing his mother. So that wasn't believable, but, and I believed that the characters were, you know, involved. Romantically just as they were getting something out of it, but like Whoopie and Harvey, definitely an odd period.
Katie: Zero chemistry, but don't you remember? That will be also did like a romcom with, uh, didn't she do one with Ted Dansen
Julia: did they do a rom com?
Deborah: Have to look it up right now?
Julia: I'm like, I'll have chemistry with Ted Dansen. He was so handsome. I mean, he still is, but you know what I mean? It just feels as an adult, it feels odd to see them. Because, you know, he's got such a like Goodfellas, not Godfather, but Goodfellas vibe to him that I'm just like, what's the appeal? I'm confused. But also, and people are going to hate me for this. And I apologize. It also feels very Reno, nineties, like this makes sense because you're not a high level enough in the crime world to live anywhere, but Reno.
Katie: And again, I think that plays to the quaintness of the concept because in our day and age, where we have like such spectacular Vegas residencies of these really famous acts, the idea that you would have to be mobbed up to get a job as like a low level of Vegas lounge singer. Just kind of adorable.
Julia: I'm not even kidding people. Like we're going to go to Reno for the weekend and I'm always like, I don't understand why.
Katie: Made in America was her movie with, Ted Dansen oh, it looks like she he's wearing a cowboy hat. So it's clearly a mismatched couple thing.
Deborah: Is this Cheers era Ted Dansen?
Katie: Cause well, 93. Okay. Huh. Well, trivia for you.
Julia: So interesting to me to see what be Goldberg in sort of a situation where she's like, this is going to sound terrible and I love Whoopie and this isn't. I hope I'm just gonna go for it. I don't see her in like romantic roles or love interest rules because she's such a fiercely independent person. And she's not really that soft in the way that you would need or would like to see somebody be soft in a relationship with somebody. Because even in Sister Act, she's just like still kind of rough around the edges. And I, and I understand that's the character, cause she's a, she's a lounge singer, but you get a little bit more, she softens when she gets into the choir, like with the, with the women, she's very. Mother hen about the, about the gals. And I think she's stronger in stuff like that than trying to be somebody's girlfriend or wife.
Katie: Do you think there was a thing in the nineties too though? That if you were a woman and you work in a headline, a movie, especially if you were a funny woman, it was almost always rom com.
Julia: Yeah.
Katie: Like that was the only space, but they felt you could tell a story.
Julia: And carry it too. Cause it did pretty well. If I remember correctly, it did pretty well, you know, decently at the box office. But now that you say that it's and I think about all the movies that we love from the nineties, the there isn't really a whole lot of like- serious... Nicole Kidman did this movie called Malice. And I think it came out in 92 as well. And it's terrible. So I'm wondering, like, and there's a couple of others that I can think of, but that's the one that sticks out the most in my mind. Cause people say Nicole Kidman, hasn't made a bad film and I'm like, have you seen Malice? It's a bad film.
Katie: Yeah. She's been in some stinkers. I take, I take some issue with that.
Julia: Thank you. I appreciate your support. We cannot, we cannot have this conversation about Nicole Kidman, never having a bad film. That's a lie, Politico, Politico deems that false. Some of the other things though that I thought was really interesting about the movie was the Pope coming to visit because he wanted to see this magical choir. Like I didn't grow up in the Catholic church, but I feel like is that even a thing?
Katie: Well, I hate to break that. Two Whoopi and the other nuns of St. Catherine's, but I think the Pope gets invites to see way better choirs regularly.
Julia: And especially in San Francisco, they kept talking about how the neighborhood's really bad. We're in a bad neighborhood. This is a bad neighborhood. So of course, I'm trying to think, well, which neighborhood are you in? It's 1992, maybe filmed in 91. So what neighborhood would the, Tenderloin's always been deemed a bad neighborhood, so maybe they're in the Tenderloin.
And so then I'm like, I'm going to fall down the rabbit hole on the internet and find out, is there a St Catherine's in San Francisco? What neighborhood is it in? And then I fell asleep on the couch because I'm old now.
Deborah: The rabbit hole I fell into was what was the reputation of the Catholic church in 93? Oh, because I was like thinking about a movie where the Catholic church has such a character itself and there's no like scandal. Um, and. Like landmark settlement in Dallas was in 1997 when like priest abuse of minors really was in the forefront of the media. And then that Boston globe story didn't come out until 2002. So this is kind of a time capsule.
Enter a voice name...: Yeah.
Deborah: Like you could not make it. Well, I guess they are going to make A Sister Act 3 so we'll see. But I can't watch a movie about the Catholic church without thinking of, um, priest abuse and pedophilia and all that controversy.
Julia: That's a really good point, but you're not wrong. Like in the early nineties, there's this moment where it's still. The Catholic church can be such a character in a way. And, you know, Catholicism shows up a lot in Hollywood in movies. I mean, that's a, for as much as people are kind of like anti certain types of religions, some of those more, um, I feel like the Catholic church shows up a lot in Hollywood. I could be mistaken, but it feels like sometimes when there's a movie that has religious people in it, religious characters, they're always Catholic or at least that's what it feels like.
Deborah: Yeah. And do you think it's maybe because the costumes are so good, like that, that series, that Sally field was in.
Julia: The flying nun.
Deborah: Like the habit, you know, the habits, that the Nuns wear. They're just so great. And then the robes that the priest wear. I don't know. I think that pageantry of the Catholic church goes really well with Hollywood.
Katie: It is also instantly recognizable. Like in that sense, you don't have to do extensive character work. If you just have someone show up wearing a nun's habit or a priest collar, like-
Julia: You immediately know what their character is. It's very clear. There's so much. And the churches to Catholic churches are beautiful. There's always stained glass. There's always some sort of cathedral feel to it. You know, it's kind of crazy how Deborah brings up it's its own character in its own, right. And you're just in, it is totally fits perfectly with Hollywood. I never thought about that before. So this movie came out in 92, so we could assume maybe they filmed them 91 because of the production, but does it, and we kind of already touched on it a little bit, but we can dive deeper now a little bit. So the concept number one, does the concept feel dated and then beyond that, does this movies hold up? You know, all of these years later at this point, it's going to be 30 years later. What it's still like even 10 years ago, because we've changed so much in 10 years as a society, but what do you all think about that?
Katie: Well, I do think that what Deborah brought up about the church scandal and it being hard to look past that I, for me, at least I could look past it a little bit just because the show was so female centric, the movie was so female centric. So I think that helps it a little bit, um, kind of divorce it from its context and make it easier to watch.
Deborah: One thing. I noticed this, that like all the nuns are white.
Julia: Yes.
Deborah: It's a very white place. And sister Mary Clearance's Whoopie Goldberg's character, like is obviously from a very different background and race is never touched on.
Julia: Yeah.
Deborah: And there were a couple of moments where she. It's like a very funny scene where she's meeting and Mother Superior and she she's like, I always admired you. People married to the JC, which I just thought it was a hilarious line. And then later in the, at the end of the movie, when they're looking for Sister Mary Clarence, Mary Patrick says, has anyone seen a caramel light nun?
Katie: Was the identified piece of information, a moment in the early nineties when we were all like so carefully taught about being colorblind.
Julia: Yeah.
Katie: She couldn't even say, have you seen a Black nun?
Julia: That was the other thing to me that I feel felt like was like a, like a hole, right. So you're going to hide her in a nun in a, in a convent, but she's the only black person there literally. So how, like, it's not going to be hard for. Whatever Harvey Keitel tells character's name is to find her when he puts out this eight by 10, right? Because he's like put out an eight by 10 and five dead or alive. Cause he's looking for, so if you're, you know, the pawn shop across the street and you see suddenly there's a Black nun at this convent.
You might be like that's weird or maybe not. I don't know. And then to your point, Katie, you're absolutely right. It totally touches speaks to that whole like colorblindness concept that we sort of saw in the eighties and nineties. I was having a conversation with one of my cousin's kids. She's in her early twenties and gen Z is really struggling with that idea, right. Of like we're, everyone's equal, we're all the same. And now there's this idea of like, that negates our differences. Okay. Yeah, I get it. But as a person who grew up with that, I'm here to tell you they did not to sort of thinking that in my perception, In California to level the playing field.
So we didn't feel like we couldn't all achieve the same things. So when you're coming at it from that direction, it's not like the end of the world. Now we can see that's flawed and has been harmful and all of these things, but tying it back to Sister Act again, the idea of hiding her in a convent just seems so like ludicrous when the convent is clearly very pale.
Katie: I was so inspired by this, that I looked up some numbers. Would you guys like to know how many African-American nuns there are in America as of, I think 2018?
Julia: Yeah. Fire away.
Katie: 400 out of 31,000.
Deborah: Wow.
Katie: So it's a, just a hair over 1%.
Julia: I that doesn't surprise me.
Katie: Yeah. Because then it, cause of course I looked more into it. If you look at the portion of the larger Catholic community, that is African-American, it's super small as well. It's only like 5%.
Julia: Okay. See, that's interesting to me because I don't know any and granted, you know, I get in California experience being a half Black human, none of the Black folks I know are bla--err Catholic. Like the idea of like, like when we had to go to my grandmas, my mom was raised Catholic. So when we went to my grandma's funeral or my grandfather's funeral and we're in the Catholic church, like it's foreign to me, like for us to be there, not just because we weren't raised Catholic, but in the times that we'd visit them and we'd go to church with them, it was not, my grandparents were Italian. So there was a lot of, not Black people. You know, you had people of like, maybe from, um, you know, different types of background that weren't white, but also not black, but then also were white. I have is I'm doing a very bad job at explaining this, but it was such a foreign thing to see a Black person because that opening scene in the movie where she's in Catholic school, And, and it was just kinda like, but then Sister Act 2.
So Sister Act 2, all the kids, the majority of the kids in the choir are Black. But at that point, I'm thinking, because I went to private, private religious school and all the kids who got kicked out of the public schools cause they did real bad things got sent to our school. So it wasn't about getting a better education or having, you know, a religious education. It was about keeping your, you got kicked out of school in town. So now you're stuck with a private religious school. So it never really occurred to me until last night to be like, this is weird. She's the only Black person here. Why?
Katie: Is it just a total misconception on my part? Or was there ever a blip of time where if you live somewhere with like a poor public school system that like the private religious education would be like the better option.
Julia: I don't think it's a misconception because I feel like other communities. So th so the Catholic school in our area, they do kind of, um, offer scholarships and stuff to athletically inclined students who might be in lower funded neighborhoods for education.
And it makes a big difference. Like we have had a couple of people from those schools go on to have not necessarily full-blown professional careers, but, um, you know, they got to college because of. For academic scholarships. So it's, I don't think it's a misconception. I think it just depends on where you are.
Like the private religious school. I went to wasn't Catholic. So I think that's why we got the bad kids. Cause it was like, we don't want them to have the structure of a Catholic school, but we still want them to like, be reminded that they're going to hell.
Okay. Because I don't think some of these people can handle it. Cause you know, cause it's like. A very structured, I don't know about now, but in the nineties, when we were visiting my grandparents, it was a very structured religious ceremony. And since we didn't grow up in that, of course, I'm like the most irritating child during service.
Cause it's four hours long with communion and there's incense and I'm, you know, a sensor I'm sensitive and sensory sensitive. So it's just like, this is not a good thing to take me to.
Katie: And there's lots of like, when do I stand? When do I sit? What do I say? There's there are a lot of rules.
Julia: It was interesting though, because, and not to get super dark, but we're going there a little bit after 9/ 11. So my mom left the Catholic church in adulthood. And so we grew up in a non-denominational Christian Church and 9/ 11 happens. And my mom's just like, We're all feeling it, right. Everyone everywhere is feeling it. And so she goes to our church and they had broken out in small groups and she was, and they, nobody knew how to leave the group in comfort.
And my mother's a social worker and slash therapist. So she's like not finding comfort when she needs comfort. Cause what does this all mean? She goes to the Catholic church and the structure of it all because she grew up in that structure was really comforting to her. And we thought that's really, that to me is still a fascinating story because when we're in distress, what brings you comfort?
She left the Catholic church prior to that, it's been, it had been like 20 plus years that she was a practicing Catholic. So I it's it fascinating how that structure, sometimes people, even if they've left it in time of turmoil can crave it for comfort.
Deborah: Rituals are powerful.
Julia: That's it?
Deborah: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, that's it. Thank you, Deborah. I appreciate you being able to sum that up better than that
Katie: three words.
Julia: So after the re release of their original film, which was in 1992 and 1993, we get the sequel Sister Act 2 Back in the Habit. Whoopie Goldberg comes back as Deloris van Cartier. The friends she made in the first Sister Act are now teaching at this rundown school slated for closure. They tap her to teach the music kids she does, or the music class. She discovers that these kids have some sort of musical talent. And she also realizes that the school used to be quite the competitor in the music competition scene. They have ribbons and statues and all kinds of things. So she quickly turns these ragtag kids into a choir. Lauren Hill's in this movie, Jennifer Love Hewitt it's in this movie, and there's tons of other huge names as well, but I feel like in 1993 of those two names are very significant. So B besides that Sister Act also adapted for a for stage and made its Broadway debut in October of 2006. So now we know Sister Act is underway, Sister Act 3 is happening. So what do we want to see in Sister Act Three?
Deborah: Okay. I thought about this maybe too much.
Julia: I support you.
Deborah: I will love to see a group of nuns go rogue form. A performing choir, get super famous, get invited to Rome, but their secret goal is to like expose all of the Vatican's secret. While they're there. So it's like a Dan Brown Sister Act mashup, choral music. That's what I want to see. Okay.
Julia: I don't know if I can top that so good because I was thinking about it. It's like, what are they going to do for the third one? I'm so confused. Cause you kind of did the two obvious things already. Katie, what do you think?
Katie: I cannot top that for a plot, but I just think this is an ideal time for a third sister act movie in our divided political climate. What is going to bring America together better then a new sister act movie. I mean, who on the left? Doesn't love Whoopi and who on the right doesn't love religion. It's like perfect synergy.
Deborah: And nuns are not controversial in the way that priests are.
Katie: Well, because they're a dying breed. Right? Right.
Julia: My favorite nuns will always be in the Sound of Music. So do we, who, besides what be, who in the original cast do we want to see? Come back. Cause Maggie Smith is like 87.
Deborah: Yeah. Some of those elderly nuns are probably not still with us. Like I love the deaf one who plays the piano.
Katie: The actress that played sister Mary Lazarus actually passed away in 95. So this was one of the last things she did.
Julia: Oh. And for those of you who may find her face, familiar her face and voice familiar, but aren't sure if you've seen it, she's in White Christmas, she plays the nosy housekeeper who like, you know, she's. In up in everyone's business, but behind the scenes, busy bodies, anonymous and teams open your letter, which I love her in that role, but I didn't realize she died in 95.
Katie: Yeah. But Kathy Najimy is still around and you know, I wanted to see her in it.
Julia: Yes. I love her. She's so funny. And for listeners who may not be familiar which, I don't know what rock you live under, um, she's she's in Hocus Pocus, and then she's, she's done a ton of stuff. The most recent thing that you can see her in is just a guest spot on younger. All seven seasons are available on Hulu. Um, and she does such a great job as playing Lauren's mom. She's so much fun. She's Lauren's like very Jewish mother, but like a modern Jewish mother.
Katie: Super supportive of whatever her daughter gets up to. It's cute.
Julia: They're cute. And they totally looked like they could be mother and daughter. Like it was really, I was like, oh, whoever did the casting, you guys are brilliant. This looks like she could be her kid. So Maggie Smith could potentially come back. I think I read somewhere that Kathy is, is slated to come back.
Okay, good, good. Other than, and then the one that played the quiet, um, Scared like timid pre-nun cause she's not in the full habit. I don't know what they call it, but it's referred to so thank you. My own ignorance is showing. I think she's coming back, but I think it'd be cool if they also brought in some of the people from sister act to some of the kids, because now they're all grown.
They're all probably in their fifties now.
BOTH: Oh, my gosh.
Katie: That would be a coup.
Julia: I'd love it. If Lauren Hill came back, I loved her in Sister Act 2 so much
Katie: Were you a choir kid growing up?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because in sister act two, when they're like, this is a bird course, cause it's easy and you can fly through it or whatever. And I was like, you, my cousin actually sent me a clip of that scene yesterday because we are.
We love sister act so much and the sequel too. And we watched them all the time and our children don't appreciate it as much. So we're kind of like, how did we fail this movie is so important to us? How do we fail our children this way? But I re I remember when I, she sent me that clip and they said that line and I was like, yeah, that's kind of why I chose to be in choir too cause all you just stand there and move your mouth and it looks like you're singing.
Katie: So there's this wonderful scene at the beginning of Sister Act 2, where the nuns go and get Delores from where she's performing. And I don't know if she's still in Reno or if it's in Vegas and my childhood had it was Vegas. Okay. So she's doing this whole show that like dramatize is her arc as like a fake, none hiding out. So she's got this habit, that's all in sequins. And like she, lots of quick changes. It's a really fun opening way for them to re-introduce this character. But in my head rewatching, the original Sister Act, yesterday to prepare for this. I thought that came at the end of the movie, like to show us how she had capitalized on her time.
So I was like sitting, like I was watching a Marvel movie. I watched the credits all the way to the end. I'm like, is this like a post credit sequence that I'm remembering because I want to see the glittery habit and it just didn't happen.
Julia: Oh, that's so funny. I wonder if that scene is what inspired them. Uh, concept for the Broadway play.
Deborah: Oh, probably
Katie: That early two thousands time. They were like making Broadway musicals out of every early nineties children's movie. Like you had Big and Dirty Dancing and they all got their own musicals. So I feel like it was only a matter of time, but when you look at the list, this direct at least. Tangentially music related. It makes a little bit more sense.
Julia: Right? Yeah. I was watching a 20 year anniversary reunion, zoom thing with the cast of Legally Blonde and Reese Witherspoon had said, because you know, that, of course it was adopted into Broadway musical too, and Reese Witherspoon had said the only music. There was lots of musical numbers in the movie that got cut. And the only one that was left in was the bend and snap scene. And so that was sort of, what helped inspire the play or the musical. And it wasn't hard to adapt because they had had all these musical scenes that didn't make the movie. But can we go rerelease of that then? Cause I'm curious, how will you fit musical numbers in this movie about. You like, I'm so confused who is how that works.
Katie: Although I so want to see Jennifer Coolidge, that's her name, right? The one that plays the manicurist. I want to see her in this movie now.
Julia: She's amazing. I just rewatched the Cinderella Story, because I was like, I need an easy, quiet calm, romcom high school feel that doesn't feel raunchy and she's in it. And I love her. She's so good. She's so good as a bad person, but then she's so good. And like Legally Blond, you're just like Hollywood do better by her.
Deborah: Yeah.
Katie: I think she's just been in something that's gotten like crazy good press. She's having a moment. She's in one of those prestigious shows that's out right now. And because I have no time to watch prestigious shows, I don't know which one, but I think she is having that moment.
Julia: Good. She deserves it. She's so talented. There's this scene in A Cinderella Story where she's like, where are your trophies to the twin girls who played the stepsisters, and because they're dressed, assigned these cats, cause it's a Halloween costume party and, um, or a costume party. I don't think it was Halloween. I thought it was like homecoming or something and she's winners get prizes. And she's like, they're like, we didn't win. Blah, blah, blah. I am very disappointed in you, but you can't tell because I just got Botox done, like frozen in a way that looks like she's happy.
Katie: Okay. So most underrated performance is in this ridiculous movie called Austin land. Have you seen it?
Julia: Yes, I love that movie.
Katie: Why is your skin so beautiful? Oh, it's because I stick my face in the fire every night. I don't know how this became a Jennifer Coolidge can show, but I am here for it.
Julia: Yes. Yes. She's amazing. Good.
Katie: So maybe we can bring her into sister act three.
Julia: I love that. And that's a great segue into who do we want to see in Sister Act 3 she wouldn't be so much fun.
Deborah: One of the things we do on our podcast is like wishful castings. So this is our, I feel like this is our wheel. So I want to see Jonathan Groff as a priest in Sister Act 3. And that would be really good. Um, I also want to see. In the non chorus, Mikayla Cole from, I may destroy you. And then, um, Yvonne Orji who plays Molly on Insecure. I have no idea if they can sing or not but I don't think that matters. My wishful casting for Sister Act Three. Yeah.
Julia: The gal from I May Destroy You just got tapped to be part of the Marvel cinematic universe. It was announced a couple. It was.
Katie: I just broke my eyes rolling them so hard. I mean, I'm happy for her success, but I'm just, I'm done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Julia: All these tributes in the last, you know, during in the month earlier in July.
About 10 years playing this character. So like Sebastian Stan did a thing about 10 years playing Bucky, and he's clearly continuing to play Bucky and then like, you know, tributes about Chris Evans playing America's ass and then like, um, A bunch of people who've been around forever. Like Chris, um, Tom Hiddleston, they're all like, oh, these characters helped make our careers, blah, blah, blah.
And when they talked about how young they were, when they started playing these characters, and now I'm just like, like Tom Hiddleston was like, I turned 40 shooting Loki the series, it was like, we can't be there. We're not there yet. We can't be there. We're there. Like this hurts. Stop talking, Tom Hiddleston.
I do, I would, I think it would be fun to see Maggie Smith come back. I don't, I know she's still acting, but in the last Downton Abbey movie, um, or the only one so far, I think there's a second one coming. She made there, there was a scene between her and Mary where she was like, I'm not well, and this is blah. So that made me think, okay, they're not bringing her back for that franchise. So is she winding down her career because she's 87 or is she just wanting to move into other things? But then I. It'd be really fun to see. Like I know Zendaya is really huge right now and everyone loves Zendaya but I think that would be a fun mix up too, because she's just got such a range that I think she, and she's really good.
Comedically. A lot of people, I think, forget that she does. Well, we didn't forget. She started on Disney, but a lot of people who met her later in her career don't know that she was really funny on that. Whatever that dance show is called, I forget what it was called. So it'd be fun to see her in something a little bit more quirky because she has done a lot of serious roles lately.
And then men wise, if they should bring men in supporting roles, I struggled with that one a little bit, because there are so many amazing male actors right now who just have, so that do have a lot of range that I, I couldn't really pick somebody younger, everyone I kept thinking was like, you know, super famous in the nineties.
It's like, get out of the night. I bring somebody current.
Katie: Well Zendaya was also in, uh, The greatest showman. So she's got musical chops as well.
Deborah: Oh yeah.
Julia: I totally forgot about that.
Katie: And speaking of that movie, I was just thinking that I could really stand a good Zac Efron musical moment as well. So maybe he and Jonathan Groff can be like the cool FPM grace.
Julia: Yes. Or at least like, uh, Zac Efron could be. The teacher, if they are out of school, I mean, or something, or he's the guy that comes in off the street, who needs to, I don't know if there's a nun who's like toying with leaving it because Zach Efron I would leave the convent for Zac Efron
Katie: So the name I was searching for was Renee Elise Goldsberry from Hamilton. I think she sing, she would make a great choir edition. She's been doing a lot of TV work here and there. So. I think she'd make a good sister act addition.
Julia: Yeah. Oh, that would be great. I'm excited for the third one, because it's not, I'm thinking that they'll tap into nostalgia, but not in a way that it feels like they can't keep it current for a younger audience.
Katie: You know how people say if they made back to the future today and it was the same time jump, uh, that Marty would be going back to the nineties.
Julia: Ouch.
Katie: I wonder if like the music they could use for Sister Act 3 to like reinvigorate the choir would be like classic nineties hits.
Julia: Throwback use Lauren Hill. uh, the Fuji's reboot, um, um, Killing Me Softly and the original. Oh my gosh. I always joke. Cause I used to work in, uh, Like a care home for older adults. And whenever they had a party, they would play, you know, in a lot, there was a dementia side. And so they'd always play music from their youth and it was, you know, big bopper and those types of things. So I went one day I told one of the, um, caregivers. I was like, can you imagine when we're in a care home, because it's going to be like DMX, and like all of these other like super heavy nineties rap groups. that we were like dancing and like the early two thousands gonna be like Justin Timberlake, all these people, and there's going to be a bunch of eight year olds trying twerk it's going to be great. Hold on. Let me get my Walker.
Katie: I mean, honestly, holding onto a Walker would probably improve my chances of being able twerk, even now.
Julia: I appreciate you guys taking the time to be on the show today. Do you want to remind everybody where they can find you if they want to keep up with you on the internet?
Deborah: We are at myscreentimetoo.com. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook. Twitter, you can email us if you want. Um, and subscribe wherever you get podcasts too. It's My Screen Time Too.
Julia: This was a lot of fun. Please come back anytime you want, especially if you want to talk about stuff that isn't children TV or movies I can get down and dirty on some HBO. As always. You can find us on Instagram pop culture makes me jealous.
Thank you again to Katie and Debra for stopping by. Thanks for tuning in y'all.
BOTH: Thanks so much. Thank you so much.
Deborah: This was really fun.
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