"If I can't effectively move people, then I would prefer not to [act]." -- Viola Davis

With a brief but heart-stopping performance in this week's period drama Doubt, actress Viola Davis (Solaris, Far From Heaven) has simultaneously put herself on Hollywood's Oscar radar and achieved what has got to be a near-impossible feat: stealing a scene from Meryl Streep. Although she's wont to modesty where the latter is concerned, Davis will un-doubt-edly remain in the minds of pundits as awards season trudges on, especially given the film's just-announced smattering of Golden Globes nominations: a Best Supporting Actress nod for Davis, as well as nominations for writer-director John Patrick Shanley, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Streep (who nabbed two nominations thanks to her other 2008 film, Mamma Mia). (See a gallery of Golden Globe nominees here.)

It's a phenomenon that's drawn attention before: Dame Judi Dench won her only Oscar to date with an eight-minute performance in 1998's Shakespeare in Love; ditto Anthony Quinn in 1956's Lust for Life. In Doubt, Davis's appearance as the dedicated mother of a young school boy who may or may not be the victim of Catholic abuse runs about that long, if only a minute or two longer. And yet it's among the more potent performances of the year, one that is garnering the Juilliard-trained Davis some much-deserved notice after a long career of television and award-winning theater appearances.

In Doubt, adapted by John Patrick Shanley from his own Pulitzer-winning play, the severe, authoritative Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) objects fundamentally to the progressive attitudes of St. Nicholas's new priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and is quick to suspect him of inappropriate behavior with the school's first and only black student, Donald Miller. Below, we go in-depth with Davis about her single scene in Doubt as Donald's mother, Mrs. Miller, in which she memorably goes head-to-head with Sister Aloysius herself. Davis also discusses the strong social and cultural undercurrents in Doubt, plus her involvement in Tyler Perry's next Madea film and how she feels about being lauded for her tragic characters.

It's quite remarkable that, for a performance that's so brief in screen time, you're getting awards buzz. What's it like for you to process, that such a short appearance could lead to so much?

Viola Davis: It's pretty overwhelming! That's a great word for it. I think it's because when I went into the project, my only expectation for myself was to do a good job, because I knew the caliber of actors I was working with. And of course my scene is with Meryl Streep, and of course it's based on a play that won the Pulitzer, won the actress who played the role that I played on Broadway, Adriane Lenox, the Tony...great expectations to do a good job, and to not fail. So that was it. I certainly didn't think that in a movie filled with such fantastic performances, that people would even notice it. I thought that it would just kind of fit into the grand landscape of the movie, and just keep it together. [Laughs] I just wanted to hold up my leg of the journey. So everything else has been...I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe right now!

It's all quite deserved. Now you're known as the actress who could steal a scene from Meryl Streep!

Davis: Oh my goodness, I didn't know I had that reputation. I don't know if I can embrace that one, but I'm definitely flattered by the accolades.

Your character, Mrs. Miller, represents an interesting shift in perspective by the time we meet her in Doubt. Up until that point, the theme of faith has remained pretty religious in nature, but Mrs. Miller's primary concerns are not faith and religion. So it's her character that opens Doubt up into maybe a more secular perspective. How do you perceive Mrs. Miller as representative of that, and more specifically of her time and place?

Davis: It's a great question, and it's also a very difficult question to answer. Because when John Patrick Shanley wrote the play, he didn't want to tell people how to feel; he didn't even want to tell the actors how to feel. So I'm going to take a stab in the dark, as to her kind of secular influence. I think it's upon her coming into the movie that you see the issues are much broader, and extend beyond religion. They extend into beliefs and ideals and just life issues; here's a woman coming into the picture who literally just loves her son under extraordinary circumstances. And here is a woman who...you know, it's funny, because I don't even feel like Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) even represents a religious view; I feel that she just represents her view.

But I think it's when Mrs. Miller comes in that you begin to understand that the argument isn't just within these insular walls of this church, that it involves issues of rigid belief systems, and broadening your mind and your heart. And it's not just even about sending this guy down the river, and whether he molested this boy or not. It becomes about love, it becomes about friendship, it becomes about being an advocate for someone, it becomes about being nonjudgmental. When you're in a religious environment, you're not exposed to the world, and therefore your views are not challenged. They're just not! They become very singular, and here I am and I represent the challenge.

Mrs. Miller isn't the first person to challenge Sister Aloysius, but she's the first one to effectively challenge her.

Davis: Absolutely. First of all, Father Flynn is not going to get to her because he's a man. He's a man and he's a priest. For me, this is my opinion. He represents the enemy; you see lots of images in the film of how repressed women were even within the convent, and how free the men were. There's definitely a hierarchy of power, so he was never going to affect her. I affect her because first of all, I'm a woman; second of all, I don't have an obvious response to the problem that she tells me, and I think it knocks her off her feet. She did not expect how I was going to defend my son.

It raises an interesting conflict: in what circumstances could potential Catholic abuse be anything but reprehensible? To most people, it would be without a question, no circumstances.

Davis: Well absolutely, no circumstances. In life, you know, they do this in focus groups; if you were in such and such circumstance, what would you do? Well, you never know what you're going do unless you're faced with it. What did Sophie do when she was faced with a Nazi soldier who said you can choose between your son or your daughter? What do you do? You never think you're going to be faced with those kinds of situations, as horrific as they are.

And like I said, for me, the movie was about more than Catholic abuse and molestation and ruining this priest's career, it's about pursuing what we feel is right at all costs, and never quite admitting that there could be a chance that we could be wrong, out of fear. It's a much more human message.

Next: Race and gender politics in 1964 New York, plus Davis's role in Tyler Perry's next film