Sun, 08 Nov 2009 4:28p.m.
Gabourey Sidibe as Precious
For a few lucky fifth graders in Culver City, California, one recent storytime came from an unlikely source - the star of a major motion picture, whose character can't read at all.
But being illiterate is only part of her story. Precious is poor, pregnant for the second time by her father and physically and emotionally abused by her mother.
It seems only fitting that a psychology major would understand the role.
"Someone pointed out to me yesterday that I probably will touch more people with this film than I would ever as a therapist," says 26-year-old Gabourey Sidibe. "And so I feel better now."
Sidibe is hardly right out of Central Casting, but then again not many plus-sized, African-American girls are.
"It's empowering," she says. "It's like, as much confidence as I have, there's still that little fat girl that lives inside of me because everyone told me that I wouldn't make anything of myself until I lost 100 pounds."
She was still attending college - in fact, she was cutting class - when she delivered the audition that brought a nationwide, five-month casting call to a screeching halt.
"And then I got the call for the callback, which was the next day," says Sidibe, "and it was really Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday movie star. Which is my new tag line, personally."
Director Lee Daniels says it was that not-so-quiet confidence that made him realise he'd been looking for Precious in all the wrong places.
"I had interviewed 400 girls," says Lee. "You know, I had gone to McDonald's. I looked everywhere for that girl. And I realised once I spoke to Gabby that if I had hired any of those girls I would have been exploiting those girls because they were Precious."
Now Gabby says she hopes her new-found fame will help teach one of the most valuable lessons of all - you can't judge a book by its cover.
"I just hope that people can get past what I look like," says Sidibe, "and what other, you know, what other people look like, and see the heart and the soul of the person."
CBS
