Brie Larson:Oscar Nominee

If you still haven’t heard of Brie Larson, things are about to change. The 26-year old actress is the talk of the town due to her spectacular and moving performance in the film, Room.
Based on the 2010 best selling novel written by Emma Donoghue, Room, started gathering Oscar buzz since its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and then winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Larson plays “Ma,” a young woman who has been held captive in a locked up garden shed since she was 17 and gave birth to a child conceived during her imprisonment. The story is told from the perspective of her five-year-old boy, Jack. After seven years of  Ma devises a plan to escape the shed with her son in hopes of being rescued.

Larson and her young co-star, Jacob Tremblay are phenomenally good in their roles especially given the fact that they are pretty much the only two people featured in the first have of the film. 

Room is up for a number of Oscars including best movie, best screenplay (Emma Donoghue), best director Lenny Abrahamson, and a best actress nomination for Brie Larson. Larson has also been nominated for the BAFTA, SAG, Indie Spirit, and Critics' Choice Awards.
Although Larson is young, she’s paid her dues to get where she is today. She’s been acting and singing since she was nine years old,  appearing in TV sketches and being featured in a few small roles in films like 13 Going on 30. 

Things got busier in 2009, with some bigger roles in films like  21 Jump Street movie and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It was in 2013 when Larson landed a leading role in the indie Short Term 12 when people really started to take notice. She played a supervisor at a group home for at-risk teens who faces a personal crisis of her own. In addition to Room, Larson also recently co-starred as Amy Schumer’s sister in the hit comedy Trainwreck.

It’s no surprise the attention, accolades nominations and awards Larson is getting for her role in Room. Having already won a Golden Globe for playing “Ma,” Larson worked hard for this role. To take on the physical and mental being of "Ma" Larson dieted and went to a gym to make sure she was in top shape to  the close quarters for months on end. Being so close to Jacob Tremblay for that amount of time was at times trying for the actress but in our recent interview, she said he made things easy for her being such a professional and mature soul.

It was no wonder that immediately after the shoot was over Bree took a well-deserved vacation to get some rest and recover from her exhausting but life transforming experience.

While Larson's performance is quite extraordinary, it’s her relationship both onscreen and off with 9-year old Canadian actor ( Vancouver native) Jacob Tremblay that makes the film more special.

The two hit it off almost immediately and to this day remain friends and stay in touch. Larson calls Jacob her best friend and bonded for three weeks prior to filming to foster their ons creen connection: doing improvisjation, drawing, playing Legos. But their relationship deepened because of her genuine respect for him. The two have been seen at numerous awards shows  and it is easy to see that they are quite comfortable together.

I spoke with Brie Larson during the Toronto International Film festival where we discussed her unique relationship with Jacob Tremblay and why she was adamant about taking on the role of Ma.