‘Sister Act’ hit theaters in May 1992
Credit: Suzanne Hanover/Buena Vista Pictures/Everett
NEED TO KNOW
- Wendy Makkena is often recognized for her role as Sister Mary Robert in the Sister Act franchise
- In a recent interview, the 67-year-old revealed that she privately layered her performance with an unspoken attraction toward Whoopi Goldberg’s Deloris, something she kept as a personal acting choice while filming
- Years later, Makkena said she was surprised to learn that some critics and viewers had picked up on that same subtle dynamic
Wendy Makkena is best known for playing the soft-spoken novice Sister Mary Robert in the beloved Sister Act films alongside Whoopi Goldberg.
While the iconic 1992 film became a feel-good classic about music, faith and found family inside an unlikely convent choir, the 67-year-old recently admitted she had her own private storyline running underneath it all.
“I thought to myself, ‘How am I gonna then justify how obsessed I sort of am with Deloris?' And then I thought, ‘Well, maybe there's an attraction,'” Makkena said on the You Might Know Her From podcast.
Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett
In Sister Act, Sister Mary Robert starts as a timid, wide-eyed postulant struggling to find her place among the nuns of St. Katherine's convent.
Everything changes when Deloris Van Cartier, played by Goldberg, is forced into witness protection and disguised as Sister Mary Clarence. Deloris' loud, confident energy collides with Mary Robert's nervous sweetness, and over time, she becomes the catalyst for the young nun's transformation — helping her speak up, sing out and take up space in a way she never had before.
On set, however, Makkena decided to keep her character's enchantment with Deloris a secret and let it play out naturally instead.
“It occurred to me that possibly, Sister Mary Robert was drawn to Deloris unconsciously, subconsciously… that there was some kind of attraction that not even Sister Mary Robert would have been, given how very innocent she was, aware of,” Makkena said on the podcast. “And nobody certainly noticed it on set. It was just an internal little secret that I used as an actor.”
Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett
That hidden layer of character motivation stayed tucked away for years, never something Makkena openly discussed during filming or during the movie's early wave of popularity.
Instead, she watched as audiences embraced the film for its humor, music and uplifting story — without much public attention paid to the dynamic she had quietly built into Mary Robert's emotional arc.
So when Makkena later learned that viewers and critics had picked up on a subtle charge between the characters, it came as both a surprise and validation.
“It wasn't until the movie came out and the reviews were so lovely, and somebody called me, and they said, ‘Oh my gosh, Out Magazine says that how come nobody has noticed the sexual tension between Deloris and Sister Mary Robert?'” she recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, they picked up on it.' ”
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