Gabourey Sidibie felt she was the wrong size for stardom until the role of Precious came along. Steve Pratt reports and reviews.

WHEN she was cast in Precious, Gabourey “Gabby”

Sidibe was studying for psychology degree and working as a telephone customer service rep. Her performance as a high school teenager, Precious, who has an abusive mother, one child by her father and is expecting another by him has earned her much praise and the promise of awards, perhaps even an Oscar nomination.

Yet she wasn’t convinced that she stood a chance at the audition. “I was withholding, on the fence. I thought it was a dumb idea to go and do the audition because there was no way that I could be an actress. I had no training.

Nothing. I thought it made more sense that I go to school.

“I was a receptionist for a company while I was studying psychology. But somehow or other it ended up with my going to the audition.”

She was persuaded by her mother and a friend, who’s the assistant director at the local theatre. He thought of her when the film-makers came to the area to audition for the leading role.

“They were looking for a very specific girl that I look like. After the audition I went straight back to work and by the time I got out of the subway, which is literally an hour later, I had the call back.”

Being chosen was a surprise because she’d been told for most of her life that she’d never be able to do anything like acting. “Also I got a lot of cues from the media – when it comes to actresses and people the media cares about, you can probably count the girls that look like me on one hand. So I certainly didn’t think I could break any barriers and become an actress.”

Once in front of the cameras she championed the book on which the film is based, telling director Lee Daniels things about the character that he hadn’t considered. “Being a fan of the book, any time they wanted to do something a little different I would get up on a soapbox, saying ‘no, you can’t do that because they didn’t do that in the book and we can’t change the book’,”

she recalls.

“I’m anal and got very serious about the character.

I’ve probably told him a lot of things just because there are so many layers to Precious and he just thought because she was big and dark skinned that she had to be a certain way. But in meeting me, I am big and have dark skin but I’m certainly better than what he thought of me.

“Certainly I changed his idea of who Precious is, based on the way I am.”

Her approach was to “disappear” when acting as Precious. “I am blank, completely, I am just feeling every emotion as Precious would feel it and how she should feel it. I leave my body and take on this character.

“It’s such a weird thing to describe because at first you do a certain amount of takes for every scene, sometimes more than others and for each time it’s all brand new information and is a revelation. It never grows cold or dead to me”.

REVIEW/OPENING TOMORROW Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire (15) ★★★★ Stars: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey 110 mins CLAIREECE Jones – the Precious of the title – is a 16- year-old girl living in Harlem.

Hers is not a pretty existence.

Her mother Mary (Mo’Nique) is violent and given to beating her daughter when not pretending to be a loving mother and grandmother for the benefit of visiting social workers.

Precious has a child, with Down’s Syndrome, by her father and, as we discover in the opening scene when she’s summoned to the school principal’s office, she’s pregnant for a second time after being raped again by him.

The choice she’s given is simple – expulsion or agree to attend an alternative schooling project called Each One Teach One, run by Ms Rain (Paula Patton). Her style is more caring than previous teachers. She has a lot of time for Precious, determined to help her improve her lot in life despite the horrors of her home life. These are truly terrible, leading to a harrowing scene in which her mother beats and kicks her down the stairs while Precious is holding her baby.

Director Lee Daniels allows her – and us – brief respite from the daily round of hassle and violence with fantasy scenes in which she imagines herself on the red carpet at a film premiere or modelling at a fashion show.

Sidibe is amazing in the title role, showing grim determination to escape her abusive parents after her new teacher shows interest in her well-being and education.

Mo’Nique too is a showstopper as a woman without a flicker of maternal love in her body.

We’re also treated to a small but convincing turn from singer Mariah Careyee, without a whiff of make-up, as a social worker appalled by Precious’s description of her home life.

ALSO OPENING Edge Of Darkness (15, 116 mins) Martin Campbell directed the 1985 BBC television series and returns to helm this contemporary feature length version starring Mel Gibson, returning to the screen after six years absence.