Shanley speaks

John Patrick Shanley on directing Doubt. No new gossip on NP's almost-casting. (LA Times)

"This is very personal. This is my childhood," Shanley says, adding that the sexual abuse accusation in the story is not autobiographical. "I remember every single person from my eighth-grade class," Shanley says. (Sister James was based on Shanley's second-grade teacher, Sister Margaret McEntee, who was a technical advisor on the film.) Michael Roukis was cast as the rebellious student William London because he reminded Shanley of classmate Tommy Diehl.