Yesterday, Gabourey Sidibe was sitting on the same panel as Oprah, Mariah and Mary J., soaking up the applause from the international media for her performance in the film Precious. But today, in a hotel suite during the Toronto International Film Festival, she's adamant that she's nothing special.
"There are like maybe ten days out of the year where I'm a big deal," she says, radiating with a warmth that's decidedly shrouded during her stony performance as Precious Jones in the Oprah-produced Oscar favourite. "Every bit of this is like an out-of-body experience."
Of course, this was before she won the New Hollywood Award at the Hollywood Awards for her breakout performance. And before she was on the red carpet with Rihanna and Maya Angelou at the Glamour Women of the Year Honors. And well before she was being accosted by fans at the mall while trying to buy Victoria's Secret bras.
The 26-year-old cab driver's daughter, who grew up in Brooklyn's tough Bed Stuy neighbourhood, has been having her Cinderella moment since Precious, a film in which she notes she's in "every single scene," debuted at TIFF in September. It went on to win the Audience Award, and it's not just that award's uncanny knack for signalling Oscar favourites that has people buzzing. The film's also done astonishing business States-side, breaking records in limited release by pulling in the highest per theatre average for a film playing in more than ten theatres.
The film is not an easy sell. Based on the novel Push, it follows a 400-pound illiterate teenager, abused and pregnant for a second time with her father's baby, as she stumbles towards improving her life. While the entire film is difficult, the climatic scene between the improbable triangle of Gabby, Mo'Nique as her horrifically abusive mother, and Mariah Carey as a social worker, reverberated with the kind of intensity you can't plan for. "We weren't even in costume yet, and it was like a faucet--everyone was crying," Gabby says. "But we had a really good lunch after."
"I didn't believe in tears," says director Lee Daniels, who as the producer behind Monster's Ball was instrumental in getting another unlikely dramatic actress, Halle Berry, cast. "I didn't want tears at all. By not wanting tears, we got the truth."
Mo'Nique didn't stay inside the anger of her character when Lee called cut. He recalls her feeding the crew on the indie film, and Gabby describes their relationship as a more functional mother-daughter one. "Mo'Nique is so filled with love," Gabby says. "She loved me before she met me... She felt for me. She saw my audition tape before I met her, so she knew what this role meant to me, and what I meant to the role, and so she loved me."
Mo'Nique's not the only one. Award season is just kicking off, and expect Gabby to be rubbing elbows with Penélope Cruz and Julianne Moore as a regular contender for some major prizes. But one critic who still isn't convinced is Gabby herself. "I'm super super proud of the film," she says. "I don't know if I can say yet I'm proud of myself. It just feels like such a conceited notion to be proud of yourself." That's ok. The fans--from industry insiders to the girls at Victoria's Secret--are proud enough for her.
Precious opens in Toronto today and expands to other cities across Canada November 27.