When Delores Hart was a movie star she kissed George Hamilton and Elvis on screen.  But she left to become a nun.  She is now Morther Delores, and is now Prioress of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut.  This year she attended the Oscars because she is the subject of one of the nominated films, a HBO documentary short called “God is the Bigger Elvis.”

Thelma Adams interviewed Mother Dolores for Yahoo! Movies and what she describes as her favorite interview of the 2012 Oscar season is a pleasure to read.  Among the highlights:

TA: What did you want to achieve? What did you want people to know?

MDH: We wanted them to take away the truth as they could perceive it. We hoped that they would, by coming into the reality of an experience, find themselves connected to something that would make sense to them. We didn’t set up an idea ahead of time. That would deny the Holy Spirit his opportunity to teach them, for them to experience what was for them to experience. We wanted to be there as the conduit, because I believe that every good teacher is meant to be the open book so that those who come in can find what they must learn to help them to know what is true.

TA: One of the fascinating aspects of cloistered life the movie reveals is that sexuality doesn’t end at the cloister doors — but perhaps our notion of it does. One nun discusses her union with others when singing, for example….

MDH: One of the key factors is that in all generations, in every generation, ever since Rome, sexuality has always been understood in one dimension, and that’s always been carnality of the experience of the male and female exploitation of one another. That’s always the limitation of sexuality, but I think that anyone who really knows what love is, you know that sexuality has the fullness of the human experience of love — that’s not limited to one or two bangs in bed. That’s not what it means. And, if it does, I think the human beings are really lost and caught in a terrible network of limitation and psychological doom, because what is our life worth?

The movie will be on HBO staring Thursday, April 5, 2012.