Your parents likely told you skipping school would never lead to anything good. Yet it just might earn Gabourey Sidibe an Oscar.
A little over a year ago, Sidibe was a regular student, living in Harlem, studying psychology at Mercy College and working at the phone company to make ends meet.
Then her drama teacher told her about an open casting call that ultimately changed her life. Sidibe decided to ditch class and showed up just as the call was wrapping up. She read a brief scene for casting director Billy Hopkins, and two days later director Lee Daniels gave her the lead in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” a role pursued by hundreds of other hopefuls.
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At that point, her entire acting resumé consisted of college productions of “The Wiz” and “Peter Pan.”
Tonight, she’ll be rubbing elbows with George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, which would probably be more impressive to her if she hadn’t already met Oprah, who backed the film.
What Daniels liked most about Sidibe was that she was nothing like the character she was portraying: a shy, pregnant teen who lives in fear of her abusive mother.
Sidibe, 26, is ridiculously sunny, has a goofy sense of humor and, as Daniels likes to say, “talks like a white girl from the Valley.” She’s into Lady Gaga, church, sushi and HBO’s “Oz.”
“One of my favorite memories of Gabby is when we were filming under a very dirty bridge,” says “Precious” producer Sarah Siegel-Magness.
“During the scene, Gabby was lying on the street, and at one point she looked up at me and Lee and said, ‘I thought making movies was supposed to be glamorous.’ She could make everyone smile while she herself was laying on the dirty ground.”
Next up for Sidibe: “The Big C,” a Showtime pilot with Laura Linney as a suburban mom battling cancer. Sounds depressing, but it still beats sitting in class.