It has almost become a default reaction when talking about Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe to mention how pretty she is. It has reached the stage where one suspects that adults are now trying to make up for their childhood playground taunts at the fat kid in class and are trying to prove that now they've matured they can see that big can be beautiful.
Yet it's not the size or looks of the 27-year-old that are her most impressive claim to fame. Plucked from the streets of Harlem, this unknown actress came out of nowhere to be nominated for an Academy Award for her acting debut in Precious, and so became one of only eight African-American women to be nominated for the big prize at the Oscars.
In that film she played the title role in the adaptation of Sapphire's book about an illiterate, obese 16-year-old girl with two children fathered by her rapist father. It had everything to do with Sidibe's performance that the film became the sleeper hit of 2010.
The two big questions that arise whenever anyone comes in from the cold are whether they are going to be one-hit-wonders or a staple on our cinema screens over the next decade. The indications are that Sidibe is going to be a big star of our screens for a long time to come.
Sidibe says that, having known Zoë Kravitz for some time, it was weird to play her enemy. "Being mean to each was definitely not a plus of this part. That's a strange aspect of being in this film together, because we play enemies and that can get really strange, and we are both sensitive people with plenty of emotion, and the emotion we have to get into in order to have to get into this and fight is very hard to do with someone that I love, and someone that I care about, and someone that doesn't bitch – and that is really strange, but it was really cool to hang out on set and be able to do girl talk: that was best part for me."
After she shot the scene in which they fight with each other, she admits that she and her co-star broke down, crying. It's another example of the amazing intensity that she brings to her role. The irony is that the vibes she gives out off screen could not be more different to those displayed by the characters on screen. She is always cracking jokes and seems incredibly smart.
She has made a seamless jump into stardom. The star says of her post-Oscar nomination life: "First of all I got this film, Yelling to the Sky, well before Precious came out and so I was already kind of in the midst of the beginning of my career. After the Oscars I started The Big C and now I'm doing Tower Heist, it's a lot like it was before the Oscars when I was just this working actress, and this wave that I seem to be on seems like such a grand thing for those on the outside, but because I'm on the wave, it doesn't feel like a wave but more like life."
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