Sister Act's Wendy Makkena: Mary Robert had 'an attraction' to Deloris

Wendy Makkena, who portrayed Sister Mary Robert in 1992’s Sister Act and its 1993 sequel, revealed her character had "an attraction" to Whoopi Golberg’s character, Deloris.

In a new interview with You Might Know Her From podcast, Makkena shared that, unbeknownst to Goldberg and the Sister Act team, she incorporated queerness as part of her acting process.

"I thought to myself, 'How am I gonna then justify how obsessed I sort of am with Doloris?' And then I thought, 'Well, maybe there's an attraction,'" she shared on the podcast.

In the film, Mary Robert is a quiet novice nun who is drawn to the more outspoken Deloris, a character who is also in a sort of closet. As a lounge singer, she joined their church under the alias of Sister Mary Clarence as part of a witness protection program. Their relationship helps Mary Robert come out of her shell and find her voice in the choir.

"It occurred to me that possibly, Sister Mary Robert was drawn to Dolores unconsciously, subconsciously... that there was some kind of attraction that not even Sister Mary Robert would have been, given who, how very innocent she was, aware of. And nobody certainly noticed it on set. It was just an internal little secret that I used as an actor," Makkena shared.

Upon the film’s release, Out clocked the attraction between the characters, Makkena said, a fact that was undetected by the public and mainstream media.

"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 Doloris and Sister Mary Robert?’ And I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, they picked up on it.'"

"[The attraction] adds stakes, and every actor needs to have a secret," she added.

Sister Act, a musical crime comedy film, became one of the biggest box-office hits of the early 1990s. It also starred Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel. A third film from Disney is reportedly in the works.