Alternate Best Actor 2025: David Strathairn in A Little Prayer

David Strathairn did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Bill in A Little Prayer. 

A Little Prayer follows a father as he has to deal with knowledge of his adult son’s infidelities. 

David Strathairn had a low key but actually fairly remarkable 2025, although in part from two of those films, including this one’s, delayed releases, regardless making the most of three very different roles. Whether that is playing the game show producer who sees his gamble go astray in The Luckiest Man in America, a role that would’ve been easy to play simplistic jerk note but Strathairn found quite a bit of complication within that part, as well as even his work in Zootopia 2. Strathairn was not just cashing a VO paycheck with that, giving his all to really put the lynx in a billionaire villain lynx for all that it was worth. But his most remarkable work is his extremely low key performance in in this film as the patriarch of a seemingly close knit family with his reenactor wife, Venida (Celia Weston), his son David (Will Pullen) whom he runs the family business with and his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy). Strathairn in the early scenes brings a nice ease of place and exudes very much the history of his Bill. Which is just a man who lives for his family and has been through some things but we just sense someone who is seemingly mostly at ease with his life. Strathairn brings this innate subdued warmth about him, particularly in his interactions early on with Tammy where he shows just a genuine care for her. 

Strathairn’s performance then becomes one of the leads though within an observational place as we follow Bill within his workplace and notices his son acting a bit strangely with one of their employees. Strathairn does a lot with his eyes here in conveying the thoughts that Bill is going through and does bring something really in basically any glance. Completely conveying the determination that his son is sleeping around on his wife. Strathairn’s reaction initially I think manages to say a great deal because the reaction isn’t of extreme horror rather of this quiet disappointment in the realization. And within the realization Strathairn has a degree of exasperation in his eyes of not a man fed up with his son but rather too much of an awareness of the failings of his son, or at least to a degree that he is aware of. So when he attempts an initial attempt to talk to David about his behavior, Strathairn’s delivery is very modest but very earnest. There’s less of trying to punish his son as he converses with him and more so trying to talk to him in regards to what he sees as the value of Tammy in the family. Unfortunately the conversation goes nowhere as David shuts it down by saying it is none of Bill’s business, and Strathairn’s quiet defeat is a defeat of years of dealing with a son who seemingly rejects his father’s advice on a consistent basis. 

We follow Bill then as he tries to uncover more information about what his son has been doing and unfortunately for him this eventually leads to a conversation with the woman his son is having the affair with which only reveals that David is even worse than he thought as she reveals that David also was verbally and physically abusive towards her. Strathairn’s reactionary work is incredibly moving because you see within his quiet distress there’s such pain and more than a bit of shame that David is his son. Strathairn carefully not presents this as a reaction of superiority rather just the sense of being lost, not lost for words how his son could be such a bad person but rather lost how he could raise such a son. Well this is going concurrently Tammy also having figured out David’s infidelity chose to abort their child, and eventually Tammy and Bill meetup to discuss the situation by spending the day together. This is the best scene in the film as both Strathairn and Levy are great together. 

What is so remarkable is the way they are able to create such a unique yet winning chemistry with one another. Which isn’t romantic yet is filled with such a sense of warmth and Strathairn’s great in showing how her presence in a way seems to illuminate and inspire the best of Bill. Creating the important sense of additional motivation in Bill initially to fix the relationship because within Strathairn’s performance you see the strong uncomplicated love for Tammy that Bill no doubt would want to have for his son, yet his son’s deep flaw can never allow for such simplicity. Strathairn finds such poignant chemistry with Levy in their conversation where he actually ends up advising her to leave. In Strathairn’s delivery there is a powerful combination of conviction of his sentiment of every word as the right thing but with the underlying burden of knowing this will end the relationship with someone he has come to deeply care for. An element that only becomes all the more painful when Tammy admits her connection with Bill as a “kindred spirit” and Strathairn’s reaction to this “confession” is heartbreaking because you see in his calm yet still devastated expression of someone feeling every bit of this loss that is only amplified by seeing that her love for him has been as great for him. It is a beautifully rendered scene by both actors where they create such a state of pure sincerity where all the complications involving David is still weighing on both, yet the direct honesty of the real affection between the two makes it far from just a moment of mutual suffering. It is with that specific shared spark of joy that leaves such a memorable impression so naturally realized by both actors as a true connection. While this whole performance is naturally realized by the talents of Strathairn, a performer who is always a welcome presence and hopefully we get a few more filmmakers to utilize this in the upcoming years.